Privacy Rights Groups Mobilize to Fight Bills

A diverse collection of privacy advocates, civil rights organizations and special interest groups--including the NAACP, ACLU and possibly the National Rifle Assn.--is joining forces to slow or stop legislation that the groups contend would give law enforcement officials new powers to fight terrorists at the expense, of citizens’ rights.

The budding coalition is expected to call upon government leaders later this week to “resist the temptation to enact proposals in the mistaken belief that anything that may be called anti-terrorist will necessarily provide greater security,” according to a draft statement circulated Monday.

The mobilization shows how abruptly the privacy debate has changed since last week’s attacks. Privacy groups that just two weeks ago were optimistic about winning tough new laws prohibiting online snooping and data collection are on the defensive now, scrambling to hold the line against further privacy intrusions, most likely from the government.

“What happened last week is probably a setback,” said David Sobel, an attorney for the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a coalition member. “Certainly there are new challenges in the privacy world. Now it’s really a matter of defending basic American principles.”

Larry Ponemon, a leading privacy expert and chief executive of Privacy Council, a Texas-based consulting firm, predicted that the attacks would reverse public opinion about the need to expand privacy rights.

“Privacy is not the most important thing anymore,” he said, adding that prospects for several dozen privacy-related bills in Congress now appear dim.

The coalition is being coordinated by Morton H. Halperin, a former State Department official who spent 17 years working with the American Civil Liberties Union. Halperin declined to comment Monday.

NRA officials, while worried that a legislative backlash from the terrorist attacks might abridge the rights of gun owners, said the group hasn’t decided whether to join the coalition or go its own way. “We don’t believe that you make America stronger by making people less free,” said NRA chief executive Wayne LaPierre.

Bradley Jensen, deputy director of technology policy for the conservative Free Congress Foundation, said the diverse coalition members shared “a desire to keep cool heads and act responsibly.”

His group is particularly worried about calls by banking regulators to expand monitoring of bank customers and stock investors in an attempt to combat money-laundering. In 1999, regulators scrapped a controversial banking rule, known as “Know Your Customer,” that would have required banks to profile customers and monitor virtually every transaction.

“Bad ideas before are still bad ideas now,” said Lori Cole, executive director of Eagle Forum, a conservative advocacy group formed by Phyllis Schlafly. Her group is concerned about renewed calls by some to require citizens to carry national identification cards.

Jerry Berman, executive director for the Center for Democracy & Technology, warned that Congress and the White House historically passed reforms and restrictions in the heat of crisis. “Then years later we find that an executive order approved to fight the Nazis during World War II is being used to undermine the activities of Martin Luther King Jr.,” he said.

U.S. courts have not shown much better judgment, according to American University law professor Steve Wermiel, who specializes in 1st Amendment rights.

“Courts tend to generally defer to the assertions of national security by the executive branch and military at times of national crisis,” Wermiel said.