Utah Aims to Shut Off Water to Massive NSA Data Center
A bill proposed by state Rep. Marc Roberts seeks to do just that.
Based on model legislation drafted by a transpartisan coalition organized by the
Tenth Amendment Center (TAC) and the
Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC) called the
OffNow Coalition, the
Fourth Amendment Protection Act would
prohibit state material support, participation, or assistance to any
federal agency that collects electronic data or metadata without a
search warrant “that particularly describes the person, place and thing
to be searched or seized.”
This puts contracts that provide the 1.7 million gallons of water a
day necessary to cool the NSA computers at its Bluffdale facility in the
crosshairs.
“Without question, the mass surveillance and data
collection by the Utah Data Center is a delicate and important matter,”
Roberts said. “But for me, the language of the Fourth Amendment is
clear. It simply protects us against unreasonable and unwarranted
searches or seizures of our persons, private residencies and property,
documents and information and personal and private belongings. This
legislation preserves those rights to the people.”
Bluffdale, a
political subdivision of Utah, provided the NSA with a
sweetheart water deal.
The proposed legislation would begin the process of ending that deal,
potentially crippling the NSA’s ability to keep the facility functional.
“No water equals no NSA data center,” TAC executive director Michael Boldin said.
He called the potential impact of this legislation significant, especially compared to what Congress has done.
“In 1975, Sen. Frank Church warned that the power of the NSA could
enable ‘total tyranny.’ He recommended that Congress should limit the
agency’s power. Almost four decades later, we’re still waiting. Congress
is not going to stop the NSA. The people and their states have to,”
Boldin said. “Turn it off.”
BORDC executive director Shahid Buttar echoed Boldin’s enthusiasm for state action.
“At stake is nothing less than our nation’s triumph in the Cold War.
The NSA’s decade of warrantless surveillance en masse assaults not only
the rights of hundreds of millions of law-abiding
Americans,
and our democracy as a whole, but resembles Soviet-style spying — on
meth, empowered and amplified by the past generation’s remarkable
advances in computing technology,” he said. “Utah residents have a
chance to take matters into their own hands, defending democracy by
shutting off state resources consumed by the Bluffdale data center in
its assault on We the People, our fundamental rights, and the
Constitution that enshrines them. ”
Notable anti-establishment figures such as Naomi Wolf and Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg advise the BORDC.
Utah doesn’t stand alone. Earlier this week, a group of Maryland
legislators introduced a similar bill, targeting water and other
resources to NSA headquarters. Lawmakers in more than 10 other states,
including
California, Vermont and Alaska, have also introduced the legislation. A bill in
Tennessee addresses material support and resources to the NSA’s encryption-breaking facility at Oak Ridge.
Boldin said other states need to join the push, even those without NSA facilities. He called it essential.
“If enough states do this in the coming years, the NSA won’t have a
place in the country where their spy centers are welcome,” he said.
Other provisions of the
Fourth Amendment Protection Act would
have an impact, too. The bill would make data collected by the NSA and
shared with state and local law enforcement in Utah inadmissible in
court, unless a specific warrant is issued.
TAC national communications director Mike Maharrey said that this
provision might prove as important as cutting off the water because it
erases a practical effect of
NSA spying.
“We know the NSA shares data with state and local law enforcement. We know from a
Reuters report that
most of this shared data has absolutely nothing to do with national
security issues,” he said. “This data sharing shoves a dagger into the
heart of the Fourth Amendment. This bill would stop that from happening
immediately.”
The legislation rests on a well-established legal principle known as the
anti-commandeering doctrine. Simply put, the
federal government
cannot “commandeer” or coerce states into implementing or enforcing
federal acts or regulations – constitutional or not. The
anti-commandeering doctrine rests primarily on four
Supreme Court cases dating back to 1842. The 1997 case,
Printz v. US, serves as the modern cornerstone. The majority opinion deemed commandeering “incompatible with our constitutional system.”
Boldin emphasized this is just the beginning.
“It took the people of Illinois ten years to legalize marijuana for
medical use,” he said. “This isn’t going to be easy, and we’re not
stopping until we win. The NSA has a choice; follow the constitution or
get the hell out.”
The OffNow coalition is group of grassroots organizations and
individuals spanning the political spectrum committed to stopping
unconstitutional NSA spying through state and local activism.
The Tenth Amendment Center was
the source for this article. TAC exists to promote and advance a return
to a proper balance of power between federal and State governments
envisioned by our founders, prescribed by the Constitution and
explicitly declared in the
Tenth Amendment. A national think tank based in
Los Angeles, the Tenth Amendment Center works to preserve and protect the principle of strictly limited
government through information,
education, and activism.
Contributed by Activist Post.
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