Somerville Bill of Rights Defense Committee Municipal Freedom Gives National Strength Residents of Somerville, MA, working to have Somerville declare itself a Civil Liberties Safe Zone, where constitutional rights to free speech, assembly, privacy, and due process are honored and enforced. The resolution passed on a unanimous vote of the Somerville Board of Aldermen on Thurdsay, March 11, 2004. It passed without clause #5, we'll continue to work to get that part implemented.

The USA PATRIOT Act, passed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, contains many measures that allow government to infringe on core constitutional rights and violate Americans' civil liberties. Since then, Executive Orders and other bills such as the Homeland Security Act have further eroded our rights.

Here is a brief overview of changes to our rights as a result of the USA PATRIOT act, as compiled by the Associated Press.
The Bill of Rights Defense Committee has compiled a more detailed guide to new laws and rules that threaten civil liberties, in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format.

Many violations have already occurred under the new rules, including more warrantless searches, and most notably a large number of secret detentions. Thousands of people have been imprisoned without being charged with a crime, and held indefinitely, without their families or the public being notified. When the ACLU submitted a Freedom of Information Act request asking for the names of the people detained and where they were being held, this was the Federal Government's response (see a closeup) - yes, every single name and location was blacked out.

We would like the City of Somerville to commit to respecting constitutional rights. Somerville can decide not to secretly spy on citizen groups, to make public the names and locations of people detained, not to conduct searches without warrants issued upon probable cause, and to make it known that civil rights have the support of the municipal government.

Read Jake's story about how local action can be effective, and inspire others.

See our proposed resolution for Somerville.

Come to our public meeting on Tuesday, May 27th, to learn about the Somerville BORDC, threats to civil liberties, and to help with our petition drive.

The neighboring city of Cambridge, MA, has already passed a similar resolution, and nearby Arlington is working on passing one as well.
If we succeed, maybe we can inspire Boston to follow our lead? If enough cities and towns all over the country do this, we could be heard on a national level.

The "Nuclear Free Zone" movement during the cold war began with municipal action in Irvine, California. Eventually enough cities and towns followed that entire countries were inspired to act.

For more information, or to get involved, write us at info@municipalfreedom.org

• Official web site of the City of Somerville, MA
• National Bill of Rights Defense Committee
• The ACLU's Keep America Safe and Free campaign site.
• The National Lawyers Guild's Post-911 Project
• People for the American Way - Constitutional Liberties
• PATRIOTWATCH
• Jake's collection of info packet materials
• municipalfreedom.org stickers you can print out. They are formatted for Avery large round labels, 2 ½"
• Some technically legal signs for your Library.