By John Nichols

 

 

What brings the most seriously libertarian Republican in the U.S. House, Michigan’s Justin Amash, together with Congressional Progressive Caucus Co-chair Keith Ellison, D-Minn.?

 

What unites longtime Ronald Reagan aide Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., with liberal firebrand Alan Grayson, D-Fla.?

 

What gets steadily conservative Wisconsin Congressman James Sensenbrenner, R-Menomonee Falls, together with progressive Mark Pocan, D-Madison?

 

The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, which has for 222 years promised: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

 

That’s an old commitment that members of Congress swear to uphold. But House members on the right and the left have concluded — correctly — that it applies to modern technologies.

 

Amash and Ellison, Rohrabacher and Grayson, Sensenbrenner and Pocan were among the 127 members of the House (98 Democrats and 29 Republicans) who last week voted against the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act. Their number also included Milwaukee Democrat Gwen Moore, who says: “Cyber threats are a very real and serious concern. However, we must also adequately protect our privacy.”

 

Described by the Electronic Frontier Foundation as “digital big brother,” CISPA is a sweeping proposal to bypass existing privacy law and allow corporations to spy on personal communications and pass sensitive user data to the government.

 

"CISPA is a poorly drafted bill that would provide a gaping exception to bedrock privacy law,” says EFF staff attorney Kurt Opsahl. “While we all agree that our nation needs to address pressing Internet security issues, this bill sacrifices online privacy while failing to take common-sense steps to improve security.”

 

A shared concern about the need to defend the Fourth Amendment has forged a rare bipartisan coalition in opposition to the measure. And that coalition is having a dramatic impact.

 

CISPA won 288 “yes” votes in the House, but the 127 “no” votes sent a strong message to the Senate. In combination with a grass-roots campaign spearheaded by tech-savvy privacy activists and a threatened veto by President Obama, the bipartisan House opposition appears to have convinced Senate leaders to put the legislation on hold. The American Civil Liberties Union on Thursday suggested that CISPA looks to be “dead for now.”

 

Groups like the EFF, the ACLU and Free Press will remain vigilant in opposing proposals that the latter warns “would obliterate our privacy laws and chill free expression online.” They recognize they face a multi-year struggle.

 

But we should all recognize the importance of what has been accomplished.

 

It is often said that Washington doesn’t work, that partisans cannot work together. Yet a left-right coalition in support of an old ideal and a new urgency about online privacy is mounting an inspired, and effective, defense of the Bill of Rights.

 

 

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