S.B. 1959 / H.R. 1955

The Honorable Claire McCaskill
Hart Senate Office Building
SH-717
Washington, DC 20510
FAX (202) 228-6326

Dear Senator McCaskill,

I am writing to you today to state my firm opposition to Senate Bill 1959 (counterpart HR 1955) and urge you most strongly and sincerely to vote against it.

SB 1959 also goes by the name “The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007,” and the potential for future abuse of its powers are enormous and frightening. As a trained journalist I can tell you that the bill contains dire implications for freedom of speech, and as such should be rendered unconstitutional.

The bill seeks to ferret out those who use, or plan to use, or threaten to use “force or violence.” That phrase is so wide-open as to invite a broad range of interpretation. Definitions like “bodily harm” or “personal property damage” do not appear anywhere, nor does it specify that “force” need be physical in nature. What does that mean? Is a peaceful protest using force? What if a group is sitting in the street or on a sidewalk, blocking 
traffic? Is that “using force?” Should that designate any of these protesters as a “homegrown terrorist?” If they are found to be “homegrown terrorists,” what Constitutional rights to they maintain? Are they considered “Enemy Combatants” at this point?

As it stands now, it would create congressional commission empowered to hold hearings, conduct investigations, and gather and hear evidence. The commission is to propose new legislation enabling punitive action against both the groups and the individuals who are associated with them. The language of SB1959 also 
allows multiple, simultaneous hearings in different parts of the country. The bill does not define terrorist 
behavior, instead leaving those definitions up to the Commission. The language is so vague: “homegrown 
terrorism” is “planning” or “threatening” to use force to promote a political objective...that just thinking about doing something could be enough to merit the terrorist label.

Although the bill gives a nod to Constitutional rights, we now live in a country which has Free Speech Zones for the first time in living memory. According to history and court precedent, the Free Speech Zone is, in actuality, the soil of the United States of America.

I implore you to do everything within your power to block this legislation from being enacted.

“We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”


- Benjamin Franklin, July 4, 1776

---

Google HR 1955 and decide if you need to call your Senators.