My name is Marc Perkel and I have decided to announce that I will not comply with the so called “Patriot Act” laws requiring me to disclose information about my customers. If I receive a national security letter I will immediately photograph it, post it online everywhere I can, and then make a video of me burning it. I will then await my arrest. If you want to put me in jail then come get me mother fucker.
My Story
I am the owner of a small spam filtering company called Junk Email Filter. Under the Patriot Act Section 215, which is due to expire on June 1st, if I receive a National Security Letter I am required by this law to disclose all my customers’ information, tap their email, give the government any information they want, and I can not challenge that decision in any court. If I so much as even tell a lawyer that I got the letter I can go to jail.
I have not received a national security letter and if I were to get one I would refuse to comply with it. There is a point where the government crosses lines where they should not be allowed to go and there’s times when a person has to take a hard line stance to refuse to comply even if it means the end to my personal freedom. So any time they want to lock me up then all they have to do is send me any demand for information that is not issued by a judge that can be challenged in open court and I will defy the law and you can come get me.
I am urging anyone who reads this to spread the word and bring my challenge into the public discourse as I stand with Senators Rand Paul and Ron Wyden in their fight to put and end to the Patriot Act. Section 215 which has been interpreted to nullify the 4th Amendment of the Constitution enables the NSA spying – and that spying must stop.
I am required by law to lie
As a small business owner in the email filtering business I am required to comply with National Security Letters. These letters are government orders to spy on my customers. These orders are not issued by a court or can they be challenged in a court. And if I reveal, even to my lawyer, that I got a NSL order I go to prison for years.
I can tell you that I have not yet received one of these letters. But I can also tell you that if I did get one I am required by law to cover it up. Therefore the fact that I’m telling you this means nothing. I am presumed to be a liar. For all you know I’m under a government order to pretend to be against the NSA so that people don’t realize that I’ve been ordered to comply. You therefore can not believe me until I am hauled off to prison. Only when I’m in jail, or rooming with Snowden in Moscow, can my integrity be established.
Oppression of my Religious Freedom
For those who don’t know me, I am the founder of the Church of Reality. A religion based on believing in everything that is actually real. So it’s pretty obvious that a government order to lie wouldn’t be compatible with a Reality based religion. And being forced to be a liar is a direct violation of my religious liberty.
My situation doesn’t apply to just Reality based religion. Being required by the government to lie is against every religion on the planet. Even those who worship the Devil would object to the government requiring people to lie. So we are throwing out religious freedom in exchange for nothing.
So – for the sake of establishing my personal integrity I am asking Obama to order me to give up my customers’ information with a national security letter so that I can defy it, go to jail, and redeem my personal integrity.