Obama Administration Sued Over Healthcare Enemies List
By Peter Roff, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
A doctors' group and an organization that advocates for the interest of the inner-city poor have joined forced to sue the Obama administration, charging that its abortive effort to collect criticisms made by those opposed to President Obama's plan to change the U.S. health care system infringed on their First Amendment rights.
In a complaint filed Thursday in U.S. District Court, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons and the Coalition for Urban Renewal and Education said the White House had attempted to "unlawfully" collect information on protected political speech when it asked Obamacare supporters to report any negative comments about the proposal to a U.S. government email address, flag@whitehouse.gov.
The specific effort, which was launched on August 4 as part of the White House's "rapid response" Health Insurance Reform Reality Check, was quickly abandoned after members of Congress raised questions about it. Nevertheless, say the two groups filing suit, the information collection effort continues under another name and is part of an "unlawful pattern and practice to collect and maintain information" on the exercise of free speech, which "continues in violation of the Privacy Act and First Amendment even if the Defendants terminate a particular information-collection component due to negative publicity."
"My hate mail started shortly after the White House issued the 'fishy' request," said Kathryn Serkes, AAPS' Director of Policy and Public Affairs. "We were quite visible and vocal before then, so it doesn't seem like a coincidence. Who did they share their data with? With whom might they share it?"
In the suit, the groups are demanding the White House remove all information already collected, and further, be prohibited from collecting any personal data in the future.
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Reader Comments
lawsuit
It is so refreshing to read comments by true Americans who love their country and believe in right and wrong. Did you say all that in actual words? No...but your expressed attitude toward the Democrate (socialist wannabees) did. Why can't we have a real, honest-to-goodness news media anymore? Why do we have to question every word that comes out of the mouth of those naive, bought out babes of the media? I guess some people never quite mature in the newsroom. They should get out into the real world sometime - away from the cameras and the glitz, and the Democratic Party.
RE LOOK AT THE PEOPLE OBAMA SURROUNDS HIMSELF WITH
It is true......take a look at them...tax cheats, anti-capitalists, anti everything that has been done prior to him coming into DC......It's beginning to look like the "Old Chicago Gang" in the White House......VERY SCARY!!!!
correction regarding "previous administration"
A blogger has falsely reported that President Bush ordered the monitoring of all private e-mails etc. That is an absolute lie. Bush, like FDR during WWII, had his agencies monitor FOREIGN communications coming into the USA from IDENTIFIABLE SOURCES that were suspected of tyerrorism, ALL SUBJECT TO JUDICIAL SCRUTINY AND REVIEW. There was not one single case (and the fetid liberals have yet to name one) where the Bush administration illegally intercepted a private domestic comunication or compiled an e-mail "enemies list" such as the one being compiled by Obama and the Democratic party.
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