January 22, 2015

Unconstitutional surveillance by state and local law enforcement can stop with your help. Senator Petersen has authored a bill, SF32, to restore the 4th amendment that extends data privacy to electronic communication via a constitutional amendment. While it would not stop the federal government from collecting warrantless information, this measure can stop it’s use at the state level. If passed by Minnesota voters in November of 2016, the amendment would add the phrase “and in their electronic communications and data” to Minnesota’s version of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The ballot would read:

“Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended so that the people are secure in their electronic communications and data from unreasonable searches and seizures as they are now likewise secure in their persons, homes, papers, and effects.”

Secure your privacy

The citizens of Missouri already had a chance to vote on this type of constitutional amendment for their own state and 75% of them voted in favor of it. And here is the Missouri ACLU reasoning for the push to amend the constitution.

Earlier this week on MPR, Cathy Wurzer and Senator Petersen had a nice chat about the amendment. Sadly, Senator Petersen recently talked with the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee and he said that he won’t hear the amendment, but offered no substantive reasons why. Here’s Sen. Petersen’s tweet about it:

Senator Ron Latz has declared that he will NOT hear the Data Privacy Amendment in the Senate. Unfortunate that Senate DFL is against this…

What you can do:

  • Call the Senate Judiciary Committee Chair, Ron Latz. Strongly, but respectfully urge him to move SF32 forward to a vote in his committee. A phone call has 10x the impact of an email: 651-297-8065.
  • Call the rest of the committee members. Again, be strong, but respectful. Urge each of them to take action to move the bill forward and vote YES on SF32.

– If you leave a message or get an “undecided” response, let them know you’ll call back in 2-3 days after they have time to review. And make sure to call again.
– If they say YES, thank them and, if possible, post publicly noting their committed YES vote.
– If they say no, ask them politely why they made the decision. Get the information from them and contact us.

Here is the contact information for members of the Senate Judiciary Committee:

Barb Goodwin (DFL) Vice Chair 651-296-4334
Warren Limmer (R) Ranking Minority Member 651-296-2159
Bobby Joe Champion (DFL) 651-296-9246
Kari Dziedzic (DFL) 651-296-7809
Dan D. Hall (R) 651-296-5975
Scott Newman (R) 651-296-4131
Kathy Sheran (DFL) 651-296-6153

Social Media/Email:

Concerned about the expansion of government control and the erosion of individual liberty? Please consider joining and becoming active with the Libertarian Party of Minnesota. Libertarians support liberty on all issues, all the time! Libertarianism is a philosophical and political movement to promote personal freedom, strong civil liberties, a genuinely free marketplace, and peace.