Somerville Bill of Rights Defense Committee

[cos]

A group of us have started to work on getting Somerville to pass a resolution declaring it a civil rights safe zone, and calling on the city to protect constitutional rights despite the extra authority granted by the USA PATRIOT Act to infringe on free speech, due process, privacy, and other core rights. Many other cities and towns have already done this, including several in Massachusetts. Cambridge passed one last year.

We have a web site at http://municipalfreedom.org/ where you can read about the issues, find useful links, a copy of our first draft resolution, as well as the final one that passed in Cambridge, and some other things. Eventually we'll probably have a petition to sign, but we're not at that stage yet. You can send us email, to info@municipalfreedom.org, to let us know if you're interested in volunteering, or in just being on a list to find out when there is some public action to take, such as signing a petition or making phone calls.

Comments

[cos]

That depends on how you mean it. It's generally true, when there's a direct conflict, but this is a lot more complicated than that. The actions of local officials do matter. There's also a political aspect that is just as important as the legal one. Read more, to understand why this is a very useful thing to do.