The Reform Government Surveillance coalition (RGS) applauds the House Judiciary Committee’s markup and passage of the NDO Fairness Act. This bipartisan bill strengthens the nondisclosure order (NDO) process by ensuring NDOs are issued after meaningful judicial review of the need for secrecy. This bill is a significant step towards improving our laws to better protect the constitutional rights of individuals in the digital age.
When law enforcement agencies seek an individual’s emails, photos, location information, or other sensitive information, secrecy should be the exception, not the norm. This bill provides courts with a rigorous standard to evaluate non-disclosure requests from the government. With today’s markup and approval by the House Judiciary Committee, we encourage the full Congress to pass the NDO Fairness Act into law, to provide much needed transparency.
RGS will continue to work with governments around the world to adopt surveillance laws and practices that are consistent with established norms of privacy, free expression, and the rule of law.
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