Local and state governments can restrict the US National Security Agency’s mass spying by cutting off electricity and water supplies to NSA facilities, banning state universities from participating in NSA research and development programs, and ending information sharing between local police and the NSA. These are some of the tactics Tenth Amendment Center Executive Director Michael Boldin proposes in an interview on the Scott Horton Show last week.
Listen to Boldin’s 31 minutes interview here.
Boldin calls the tactics a form of nullification of US laws and finds support in state and local governments defying US marijuana laws now and defying US laws requiring the return to enslavement of escaped slaves in the 1800s.
Given that significant restraints on the NSA almost passed in the US House of Representatives this summer, Boldin seems overly dismissive in the interview of US legislative action potentially restraining the NSA. Instead of defining one approach as the only viable alternative, actions on the US, state, and local levels may be best viewed as complementary, with different people focusing on different activities based on their skills, connections, and interests.
Boldin directs people to the website offnow.org for more information regarding nullifying the NSA.
Flickr/Fibonacci Blue
