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You are here: Home / Politics / Political Action / Jamie Raskin Says Please

Jamie Raskin Says Please

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DOGE Privacy Act Requests

U.S. Representative Jamie Raskin is encouraging all U.S. citizens to join him this week in filing formal demands for access to their personal data obtained by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and Elon Musk.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has issued an injunction commanding DOGE to comply with citizen requests under the Freedom of Information Act. This law encompasses the Federal Privacy Act of 1974, which entitles any citizen to access personal information held in any U.S. government records system. Please find a fillable Privacy Act request form HERE.

Citizens need only fill out the form and mail it in to DOGE.  This newly recognized federal agency, which has been systematically accessing government computer data systems, now has an obligation to respond to specific information demands from any of the 340 million U.S. citizens who exercise their legal right to defend their privacy and establish the security of their private information.

Once you have mailed a Privacy Act Request to DOGE, please fill out the form HEREand we will stay in touch with additional details and updates as they become available.

It would be wrong to say no to Jamie Raskin!

Reader Interactions

93Comments

  3. 3.

    WaterGirl

    Sand in the gears.  We can tee up the ball so hopefully it can be of use for slowing things down.

    It’s like having a good lock on your door.  That doesn’t mean someone can’t break in, but they may just decide it’s not worth it and move on.  The more things we make a pain in the ass for them, the more likely they are to let that particular grift, or that particular harm, go.

    They are looting everything; grabbing everything they can off the shelves.  We put some of it in a glass case.  Make it one step harder for them to loot.

    That’s how I see it, anyway

  4. 4.

    cmorenc

    @chemiclord: Except MAGA AG Pam Bondi controls the US Marshall service who would be needed to carry out the arrests.  Think she’ll sic ‘em on Musk’s DOGE wunderkinds?

     

    She’s there to reenforce DOGE, not to restrain it.  At best, her response will be duck, deflect, weave, and slow-walk.

  5. 5.

    WaterGirl

    @cmorenc:  That’s all true, but I don’t see that as a reason not to do what we can.  Do you?

    Because I’d rather not drag this thread down the hole of hopelessness.

  7. 7.

    cmorenc

    @WaterGirl: nope, agree we should do it anyways.  What I am really getting at is that Bondi controls the government arm needed to enforce all judicial injunctions and rulings unfavorable to the Trump Admin, and not just on this matter.

  8. 8.

    Betty Cracker

    Gotta admit I wrestled with this request a bit when I first heard about it on Bluesky. We’re dealing with an openly authoritarian regime that routinely brags about using law enforcement and the federal agencies it controls to harass, punish and even disappear people it considers enemies.

    But ultimately, I decided that NOT filling it out because I’m afraid of identifying myself as a potential opponent of DOGE and the Trump regime is a species of complying in advance. The authoritarians want us to keep our heads down out of fear. I refuse.

  9. 9.

    sentient ai from the future

    The more work musk and his scriptkiddie schutzstaffel have to do to comply with records requests, the less time and energy they have for destroying the federal government.

    Swamp these motherfuckers.

  10. 10.

    Raoul Paste

    @Betty Cracker:   I was looking forward to reading everyone’s opinion on this issue.  I’m sure Jamie Raskin has thought about what might happen next, but  there are always the famous unknown unknowns.
    ETA. Still, the comply in advance argument is a good one

  12. 12.

    kindness

    Raskin’s keep them buried in paperwork is great.  The only problem I see is DOGE already is ignoring the law.  Seems to me they’ll ignore this too and it wouldn’t shock me if most of these mailed requests mysteriously vanish after reaching the DOGE office.

  13. 13.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @cmorenc: I’m basing this purely on Westerns I’ve watched but can’t courts deputize people to enforce decrees? Like, for instance recently fired and pissed off FBI agents?

  15. 15.

    Jeffro

    @Betty Cracker:ultimately, I decided that NOT filling it out because I’m afraid of identifying myself as a potential opponent of DOGE and the Trump regime is a species of complying in advance. The authoritarians want us to keep our heads down out of fear. I refuse.

    AMEN

  17. 17.

    ExPatExDem

    @Betty Cracker:  The taking of political prisoners has already started with Mahmoud Khalil.

    You are correct in all of your thinking.  Opposing an authoritarian regime carries risk.  But in the end, not opposing them is no guarantee of safety.

  18. 18.

    sentient ai from the future

    @ExPatExDem: the more people who oppose, the wider the repression net needs to be cast, and the easier it becomes for everyone to evade or escape it.

  24. 24.

    Professor Bigfoot

    Mrs. B purchased a somewhat older refurbed MacBook Air (and don’t ask me why– SHE couldn’t tell me why!), got it set up, decided she didn’t really want to bother with it and maybe she just needs a new iPad.

    SO… I took it, because my slicer software doesn’t run on the iPad– I can use this to drive my printers from downstairs in the living room.

    I’m actually rather surprised– it seems to run pretty well, save for the battery being a bit wonky. Orca slicer runs on it, and that’s really all I need it for, to save me trips up the stairs… ;)

  26. 26.

    mapanghimagsik

    Bonus points for using a readable, yet difficult writing/font for optical character readers (OCR)

  30. 30.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Betty Cracker: There are already tons of publicly available records identifying me as a registered Democrat, a voter in their primaries and a many-times-serial donor to Democratic politicians and liberal causes. If they want to go after all the liberals I’m right here. I suspect my status as a pretty well-off straight white man with an Anglo name means I’m *not* the target they most want to hit or feel safest hitting, but that also gives me a responsibility to be a public pain in the ass to some degree.

  35. 35.

    ewrunning

    @eclare: “Wet” means a handwritten signature as opposed to those ones they now force us to write with our fingers on a pad that always come out looking godawful.

    @WaterGirl, thanks for front paging this, which I had mentioned in a comment a few days ago. Leaving shortly for another Tesla Takedown, at risk of being labeled a “domestic terrorist.”

  37. 37.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @Matt McIrvin: There are already tons of publicly available records identifying me as a registered Democrat, a voter in their primaries and a many-times-serial donor to Democratic politicians and liberal causes.

    Yes, I’m already on the list as a donor to “pencil neck” Adam Schiff. [That’s “Senator Pencil Neck” these days.]

  38. 38.

    H.E.Wolf

    @sentient ai from the future: i think “wet” is used to contrast with an electronic or digital signature.

     Yep! And in the long-ago times, ink really was wet. As anyone, these days, who uses a fountain pen can confirm.

    (It’s one of the reasons ballpoint pens were such a breakthrough. Their ink wasn’t nearly as wet!)

  42. 42.

    No One of Consequence

    @Professor Bigfoot: What are you printing? Sounds like a bit. No, I’m not going to inform on you, just curious that you would solution a device for a slicer. (This is not weird or odd, just specific.)

    Peace,
    -NOoC

  43. 43.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    Just read that we expelled the South African Ambassador to the United States and declared him Persona non Grata for some speech he made, but it seems like that’s a flimsy excuse for the real reason which is South Africa saying “no thanks” to Starlink. What a fucking timeline.

  44. 44.

    sentient ai from the future

    @H.E.Wolf: preaching to the choir. cost increases for feather quills from my supplier have even outpaced the rise in the price of eggs.

  45. 45.

    sentient ai from the future

    @Baud: serbia tho. also protests still ongoing in georgia, and today the CBC France24* highlighted protests in SK.

    *if theres a bright side to any of this, minor though it is, it is that i am strongly diversifying my media intake, and teaching my kiddo how and why to do so at the same time.

  49. 49.

    Mai Naem mobil

    @Matt McIrvin: so a friend and I were talking about changing our registrations to independent. We actually talking about this pre-November if the RW decided to play games.  We decided changing last mi nute would just be more of a red flag. We decided not to do that.  But now we’re  talking about it again.  If Edolph and his pals try to screw with ballot counting they would pick up wholesale Dems. The thing is we live in a blue pocket so I don’t know if they screw with wholesale Dems or wholesale blue areas.

  51. 51.

    ArchTeryx

    @Baud: The Caribbean is absolutely full of insane approaches. They also have the shortest commercial runway in the world. You have to be made of entirely different stuff to island-hop a Twin Otter around the Caribbean.

  52. 52.

    ArchTeryx

    @Mai Naem mobil: If things reach that point they’re just going to cut out entire geographic areas – mostly cities – or all black people, etc. It’ll be geographic or demographic. They’ll lose some R votes, but relatively few vs. the number of D votes. It’s the most efficient form of vote suppression there is, now that they have computer maps of everyone’s party registration.

  55. 55.

    NotMax

    @sentient ai from the future

    So old the grade school I attended still had inkwells in the desks. And the teacher had two large glass containers front and center on that desk, one containing blue ink and one containing the dreaded red.

  56. 56.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Mai Naem mobil: Elections are run by the states, the local election boards are usually more honest than conspiracy theorists imagine them to be, and ballots are secret. So directly messing with ballot counting in the US is actually harder than one might think. Easier to mess with voter *registration*– try to get onerous restrictions mandated nationwide or enacted as widely as possible. The easiest thing to do is probably to just throw opposition candidates in jail on whatever bogus charges, and generally legally harass them to smear their reputations.

  57. 57.

    Baud

    A New Hampshire man with a green card was detained by immigration officers at Logan Airport and is being held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Donald W. Wyatt detention facility in Central Falls, Rhode Island.

     

    Fabian Schmidt’s family said they are unsure of why he is being held. They said he has a recently renewed green card, and no active issues in court

  60. 60.

    Redshift

    @ExPatExDem:

     You are correct in all of your thinking. Opposing an authoritarian regime carries risk. But in the end, not opposing them is no guarantee of safety.

    Yes, and while it’s good to take precautions, I’m reminded of another point from one of the authors I’ve read who has actual experience with authoritarianism: If you’re not willing to do things that make you uncomfortable, you’re not really resisting.

    (I really need to start taking notes on where I got things that stick with me…)

  63. 63.

    Lobo

    For Latinos this is difficult.  We don’t want to be desaparecidos. But in this we all have roles to play and resist in our own ways.

  64. 64.

    Salty Sam

    @ExPatExDem:   The taking of political prisoners has already started with Mahmoud Khalil.

    I have joined Austin Sanctuary Network as an “accompaniment volunteer” (drive immigrants to the Immigration Court for their hearings).  ASN started out years ago as an organization dedicated to assisting immigrants through the naturalization process-  in the last few months it has shifted to “protection”, and working to hold ICE, CBP, TxDPS, and local enforcement to rule of law and constitutional order.  At a training session this past week, there were reports of people being picked off the streets in San Antonio and whisked away and bussed to the processing center at the Mexican border without any form of due process.  Anecdotal sure, but this is Texas, so it is not unreasonable to believe it’s true.

    Mahmoud Khalil is not the only one, just the highest profile.

  66. 66.

    David Collier-Brown

    @ExPatExDem: I’d make that stronger:

    You are correct in all of your thinking.  Opposing an authoritarian regime carries risk.  But in the end, not opposing them is no guarantee of safety.

    Not opposing them will make you look weak, and a more desirable target.

  67. 67.

    Sloane Ranger

    @Baud: I thought this was satire. Then I clicked on the link and it’s Texas.

    Why am I not surprised? Who needs satire when you have Texas?

  68. 68.

    TBone

    Someone here at BJ posted this news request yesterday day and I downloaded the form, after changing my opinion that they’ll simply have the mail forwarded for delivery of all the forms to Ms. Gleason at her vacation spot somewhere in Mexico.

  70. 70.

    ArchTeryx

    @Sloane Ranger: It wasn’t that long ago that something like that might have actually gotten traction, considering how furries in general used to be considered a bunch of sexual perverts and nothing else. The fandom originated from the gay community, so of course they were going to get tarred like that.

    However, with furry conventions now out-drawing major commercial conventions, cities actively competing to host them, and over a hundred of them every year, they’ve gone mainstream big time. These Southern-Fried assholes are a couple decades late if they want to pick out furries as an easy persecution target, though I’m sure there are plenty of parlous bigots who will sign on. Because the “R” next to the name of the sponsors is all they need.

  71. 71.

    LMP

    @eclare: It’s your signature made by your own hand with an actual pen and actual ink — not a digital signature, not an image, not something that someone else might have done for you (barring forgery).

  73. 73.

    ArchTeryx

    @Baud: So they’re trying to drum up controversy to hide their school voucher bill? Gee, why am I not surprised?

  76. 76.

    bbleh

    Extracted the URL (it works), printed up 120 copies of the post, and distributed them at the Philly rally today (easy sell!).  Several people mentioned they had seen/heard about it on Facebook, so word is spreading by various means.  Cause trouble!

  78. 78.

    scav

    Baud: Can’t wait for the Texass Rangers to show up on prime-time tee-vee and every high-school football game in their fair state to send a posse out to haul those prancing team mascots down to the hoosegow.

  81. 81.

    Super Dave

    @Betty Cracker: I agree with you. It’s pretty clear by now, after 10+ years of our institutions failing to stop this malignant narcissist from destroying our democracy, and that our “leaders” in the political and business worlds are total cowards, it is up to us, ordinary people, to make a stand to defend the nation. Nobody else is coming to save us. It’s ALL on US. Thank you for your personal courage and your words of wisdom that I so look forward to reading every day. You are a national treasure. My wife and I mailed our forms today.

  85. 85.

    Gravie

    Sent mine today but I didn’t think to request return receipt. I have spread the word to numerous people. It’s such an easy ask. Let’s get ‘em with the death by a thousand (paper) cuts.

  88. 88.

    cain

    For me I am not interested in having the eye of mordor suddenly focused on me and being put on a list as I would then be targeted later.

    If you are a target to the federal govt .. eg LBGTQ+ or Muslim, Indian and so on. I would advise against it.

    ETA I do think former green card holders like myself should do a FOIA on yourselves to get their immigration history. I have mine.

    Although strangely they called me Vladimirnovna in the disc I got back.

  91. 91.

    Glidwrith

    @NaijaGal: That snippet doesn’t really make clear what was done: he was tortured to the point of being hospitalized. And while the article doesn’t say why he was held, it mentions his partner twice. Not wife. Reading between the lines, they detained him because he’s gay.

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