In November, Privacy Lives joined 28 groups (including the Center for Democracy & Technology, Center for National Security Studies, and Special Libraries Association) in sending a letter (pdf) to the White House urging that the administration make the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board selection process “a priority and ensure that nominations to the Board are made to the Senate before the end of the first session of the 111th Congress, so that a Board can be seated early next year.” Several months later, the Board remains vacant and no nominations have been made. (For the history of the Board, read a previous post.)

Now, Privacy Lives joins more than 30 groups (including the ACLU, American Library Association, Defending Dissent Foundation and September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows) in again urging (pdf) President Obama nominate individuals to fill the board. The groups explained that it is more critical than ever that the board convene. “As a result of the attempted Christmas Day bombing, your Administration and Congress are considering numerous policy changes that impact the privacy and freedoms of Americans, including expanding watch lists and more intrusive searches at airports. It is crucial that you nominate qualified individuals to serve on the PCLOB, so that it may begin to provide guidance as new policies and procedures are developed.”

The groups noted that they are not alone in urging the board be filled. In testimony to Congress in January, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair said the board “would provide a very valuable service.” Also in Congressional testimony in January, the Chair and Vice-Chair of the 9/11 Commission (former New Jersey governor Thomas Kean and former Indiana Congressman Lee Hamilton) said, “We continue to believe that the Board provides critical functions and we urge President Obama to reconstitute it, quickly appoint its Members, and allow them full access to the information and the authority to perform to perform this essential function.”

The groups signing onto the letter are:

1. American Association of Law Libraries
2. American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression
3. American Civil Liberties Union
4. American Library Association
5. Arab American Institute
6. Association of Research Libraries
7. Bill of Rights Defense Committee
8. Center for Democracy & Technology
9. Center for National Security Studies
10. Council on American-Islamic Relations
11. Cyber Privacy Project
12. The Constitution Project
13. Defending Dissent Foundation
14. DownsizeDC.org, Inc.
15. Electronic Frontier Foundation
16. Electronic Privacy Information Center
17. Federation of American Scientists
18. The Freedom and Justice Foundation
19. Government Accountability Project
20. Liberty Coalition
21. Muslim Advocates
22. Muslim Public Affairs Council
23. Muslimah Writers Alliance
24. National Lawyers Guild/ National Office
25. OMB Watch
26. Open Society Policy Center
27. Privacy Lives
28. Republican Liberty Coalition
29. Rutherford Institute
30. September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows
31. Special Libraries Association
32. U.S. Bill of Rights Foundation

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010 and is filed under Anonymity, Civil liberties, First Amendment, Fourth Amendment, Identification, In the news, Security, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Possibly related posts:

• In the News: NPR Story on Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board
• In the News: Groups Urge White House to Fill Privacy Oversight Board
• Groups Urge President-Elect Obama to Focus on Privacy in New Administration (Part I)