AUTISM APARTHEID: Wiping Out Autistic Families and Indigenous Autistic Culture By Taking Their Children To Be Raised By Others Not Of Their Kind

This is a blog post about the Autism Apartheid and Autism abuse by the state of California that has crossed state lines into the state of Georgia, and resides on St. Simons Island. I am talking about the California “family law” courts that engaged in systematic Autism abuses of removing the biological children of Autistic parents without any findings of parental “unfitness” to give Autistic parent’s children to non-Autistic NeuroTypicals to raise as part of the ethnic cleansing and wiping out of Autistic families and culture – no different than the human rights violations the United States perpetrated on Native American Indians and African Americans in its historical past.

Today, America is awakened to the FACT Autistic people are dramatically increasing in population numbers, tend to engage in “assortative” mating with our own kind, and have our own Autistic beliefs, language, and culture. This is precisely what the “Core Curriculum,” “standardized testing,” and American legal system built “by and for” non-Autistic peoples is designed to eradicate. No different than eradicating Native American peoples or breeding African American slaves and selling their children off to become the property of others.

It IS an Autism Apartheid, and it IS an oppressive and offensive system that has no place in any enlightened civil society.

In my life, my peers and I who are Baby Boomers born during the 1950s, were faced at every part of our lives with: ignorance about our Autism, lack of early interventions or, indeed, any programs or services to help us that way they exist today, forced “normalization,” extreme punishments by almost everyone for our Autistic traits, language, and behaviors, American courts bent on sterilizing us, and if we managed to escape that fate, then professional licensing associations bent on making sure we are denied any way to earn a living while our biological children were taken from us and given to others not of our kind to raise.

All of this systematic Autism Apartheid and abuse to ENSURE Autism be stopped dead in its tracks, eradicated, to stop Autism from “kidnapping” the opportunities, jobs, and housing designed for non-Autistic peoples, and their “American Dream” (that did NOT include Autism).

My father, Kenneth G. Day, was a Korean War veteran and worked most his life for IBM, yet he could not escape the chemical effects tainting his fathering of an Autistic child, me. My step-mother, Nancy Raines Day, is a non-Autistic NeuroTypical, whose father, John Nelson Raines was “groomed for perfect things” according to her testimony in the California “family law” “Child Custody” evaluation she and my father paid to have performed in a “grandparent visitation” lawsuit they brought against me in 1993 – after I had sole custody of my only biological child for 15 years and had raised her according to my Autistic ethnicity, language, culture, and beliefs. My step-mother, Nancy Raines Day, is a famed “children’s book” author, who has published numerous “children’s books” going to morality being taught to hundreds of children through her books, see HERE: http://nancyrainesday.com/.

During January 1992, my step-mother Nancy Raines Day sent my 

father Kenneth G. Day to my home, unprovoked, to “take” my biological child without my permission and they kept her for over 6 weeks. The Sonoma, California Police Department wrote a police report recommending my father be charged with child enticement, a form of child abduction, in violation of my California “family law” court custody orders.

My pastor from the St. Francis Solano Catholic Church in Sonoma, California recommended I go to my father and step-mother’s house, where they had freely given me a key to walk in, and inform them I was taking my daughter home. I am an adult with Autism, so I do not have the ability to know when I am being told to go into a dangerous situation, and I cannot read social language or body cues, but remain true to my immutable inherent Autistic nature and follow the literal language of the instructions I was given by my pastor.

When I went to my father and step-mother’s home on the evening of March 25, 1992, used my key, and walked in and told them I was there to take my daughter home, both my father and step-mother immediately physically charged at me in a very aggressive manner, and my step-mother, Nancy Raines Day, grabbed my arm and held me for my father, Kenneth G. Day, to physically beat and bash my head about 40 times into the walls of his house. 

Because of my Autism and Autistic differences, my step-mother, Nancy Raines Day, had previously called me “the black sheep of the family” (invidious motive to harm). Nancy Raines Day is the “children’s book” author preaching her non-Autism morals to hundreds of American children, and I doubt she disclosed to her book publishers how she and my father tried to murder me that night simply because I am an Autistic adult – the same way so many other parents of Autistic children and adults have attempted or succeeded in murdering their Autistic children.

My father and step-mother, Nancy Raines Day, who my husband calls “Ms. Children’s Book,” inflicted a significant brain injury in me to the point (on the outside) there was a 4x4 cm contusion on my head and appx. 1/3 of the hair on my head had been torn out by them.

But, as we continue to see across the United States, the American legal system built “by and for” non-Autistic peoples that is designed to eradicate all Autistic indigenous rights, was more interested in the fact I, an Autistic woman, had been raising my own biological child in Autistic ethnic, language, culture, and beliefs than the FACT my father, Kenneth G. Day, and step-mother, Nancy Raines Day, attempted to murder me (and almost succeeded) to “take” my biological daughter away from me simply because of my Autism. 

As soon as they had “taken” 5 days per week with my daughter away from me under the guise of a “grandparent visitation” under official court approval (after the beating of me), my father and step-mother “Ms. Children’s Book” immediately terminated my daughter from her private Catholic school, changed her religion, changed her friends, and basically eradicated and wiped out her Autistic indigenous inheritance.

Today, we see many protests and Autism organizations lobbying Congress to change these Autism Apartheid atrocities. For example, the Autistic Self Advocacy Network (“ASAN”) has issued a “Position Statement” regarding stopping the precisely the kind of Autism “family law” court abuses I endured personally, see HERE:

“Family Law and Relationships

The Right to Have a Family

One of the most pervasive forms of discrimination against people with disabilities has come from those who use stereotypes and faulty science to deprive us of the right to have a family, to marry, and to raise children on an equal basis with all other citizens. Although the eugenics movement and the resulting involuntary sterilization of numerous people because of their disabilities may be the most widely known example of the harm caused by such attitudes, the closely related prejudice that those with disabilities are inherently unfit as spouses or parents has caused many Autistics and others to be deprived of parental rights and discriminated against in divorce and child custody cases, based on stigma and stereotypes rather than evidence.

Opposing False Claims

In recent years, some psychologists and others have for reasons of personal financial gain promoted false claims that Autistics are unsuitable for family life and inevitably cause harm to romantic partners and family members. These claims have no support whatsoever in the scientific literature. In some relationship workshops based on these ideas, the participants are encouraged to blame their Autistic partner for problems in the relationship and to buy books, counseling sessions, and other products and services that are presented as necessary to their emotional healing. These ideas have led to attempts to influence social workers and family law courts to remove custody of children from Autistic parents and to discriminate against Autistic adults in other family law settings.

Ending Discrimination in Child Custody

Because there are so many prejudiced ideas about disability that affect family life and relationships, Autistic victims of domestic abuse are likely to fear discrimination and the possible loss of their children if they seek protection from the abuse. They may remain silent even when their lives are in danger. Laws prohibiting discrimination in child custody matters are needed, along with educational efforts to dispel unfounded myths and prejudices. This will ensure that Autistic parents and other parents with disabilities will not have to live with such fears.”

http://autisticadvocacy.org/policy-advocacy/position-statements/ (emphasis added)

Beyond all else, it is even more important to understand the long-term, life long impact such troubling and Dark Autism hatred and thoughts as the California “family law” courts and my father and step-mother, Nancy Raines Day” perpetrated on me as an Autistic adult American – I am now treated to seeing almost weekly postings made by my biological daughter of my two grand-daughters (one of whom looks like me and the other of whom looks like my late mother) containing background effects showing that my father and step-mother are now involved in raising my biological grandchildren to FINALLY eradicate all Autistic indigenous ethnicity, language, culture, and beliefs and wipe out the immutable inherent nature of an Autistic people.

I have not heard from my biological daughter for over 1 ½ years, with the last time being a telephone call in which she ended the call saying, “Mom, I’m getting a new phone and I’ll call you tomorrow.”

I have never seen in-person or held my two biological granddaughters, shown HERE: http://gigglesandbeans.com/.

I did not just lose my biological daughter BECAUSE I am an adult Autistic woman. I also lost my mother who committed suicide (on my father and step-mother's front lawn) over all of this when it happened in 1994, leaving me without ANY Autism supports. There is no better way to say: "Segregation."

What I have to say to this Country is: People, you need to stop and THINK what you are doing to an entire, rapidly growing underclass of Autistic American peoples who are DIFFERENT THAN YOU, but have the same rights as everyone else – or SHOULD HAVE.

We Autistic people are ANGRY that you non-Autistic NeuroTypicals are WIPING OUT our indigenous identity and taking our own biological children and grandchildren away for purposes of ethnic cleansing.

Your American legal system built “by and for” non-Autistic peoples that is designed to eradicate Autistic indigeous identity, differences, and equal rights is SHIT.

Your non-Autistic NeuroTypical IDEAS about the worthlessness of Autistic life is SHIT.

We Autistics are people, too. 

If Martin Luther King, Jr. were alive today, he would surely write from the Birmingham jail that it is TIME for all Autistic Americans to make a 6 million person Autistic march on Washington, D.C. holding signs demanding this Autism Apartheid STOP and Autistics be accorded their God-given EQUAL RIGHTS.  

My daughter, speaking from her ethnically cleansed point of view (voicing the words of non-Autistic Nancy Raines Day), told my husband it was “not productive” to bring up these human rights violations and atrocities on the Autistic indigenous identity of “the past.”

Yet, EVERY SINGLE DAY, these same human rights violations and atrocities on the Autistic indigenous identity with NO REMEDY and NO REDRESS live on.

To those of you who find yourselves shocked at this blogpost, maybe you need to wrap your minds around the FACT millions of Autistic adults and Autistic child victims of your “Combating Autism” campaigns have THE SAME DEEP UNDERLYING FEELINGS REGARDING THE ANTI-AUTISM SOCIETY YOU HAVE CREATED AND MAINTAIN as I hold.

Autism is NOT “going away.” Autism is increasing rapidly, and it cannot be “aborted” nor can “designer babies” stop Autism – Autism is caused by environmental factors and even a “designer baby” will soon be epigenetically changed into an Autistic person.

Autism is increasing more than 80 % every two years in the state of Florida alone.

Before long, if the Autism Apartheid oppression is not ended, Autism will eat up every state and federal and private retirement pension in America.

Wrap your non-Autistic NeuroTypical brains around THAT.

And, when you do, ASK YOURSELF if you want to live in a divided society where YOU non-Autistic people have created a deep dislike and opposition to EVERYTHING YOU STAND FOR held by a Massive Autistic indigenous population.

Because, that’s where the society you have created is headed. 

For better or worse. 

Can anyone say: Soweto, South Africa ? We have one in America today, and that's where all the Autistic people are supposed to go. 

For the Autistic indigenous peoples, there IS no "American Dream." And there is NO EQUALITY.

MY UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE TITLE II ADA DISCRIMINATION AND RETALIATION COMPLAINT AGAINST THE FLORIDA SUPREME COURT AND ITS JUSTICES

To United States Department of Justice:

My name is Mary Katherine Day-Petrano. By this writing I am making a disability discrimination and retaliation complaint against the Florida Supreme Court and each of its justices for violating my civil rights under Title II of the ADA and 42 U.S.C. Sec. 12203(a) and (b). 

The Florida Supreme Court is located at 500 South Duvall Street, Tallahassee, FL 32399-1927, (850) 488-0125.

My address is 11502 SE US Hwy. 301, Hawthorne, FL 32640.

 

I have been diagnosed with Autism by my doctor Michael W. Hoffmann, MD and the University of South Florida in April 2009. He also diagnosed me with a significant traumatic brain injury from a January 2008 car accident. I also have temporal lobe epilepsy diagnosis, hearing impairment and vision impairments diagnoses, and numerous other diagnosed physical and neurological disabilities. 

 

I have received accommodations for my disabilities under Title II of the ADA since at least May 1996 by numerous other public entities and courts in the states of California and Florida other than the Florida Supreme Court. 

 

At a May 14, 2014 hearing before Tampa, FL United States Bankruptcy Judge Catherine McEwen, the Judge recognized my blindness when she asked (on court record) the bankruptcy trustee what he does for blind people to give them access to paper print documents. 

Following that hearing, a United States Trustee sent from Atlanta, Georgia Region 21 office, spoke with my lawyer at another hearing in the Us Bankruptcy Court and offered to assist with getting the appointment of a guardian ad litem for me. I was placed in the University of South Florida's "Emerging Consciousness" program for "minimally conscious" patients in April 2008 following my 2008 car accident. 

Also, anyone who is even remotely aware of Autism would know that individuals with Autism cannot be thrown out on the streets or left unsupervised, because to do so causes wanderings and high risk of death.  

 

My lawyer made a request for Title II ADA reasonable accommodations for me (1.) to access my Florida Bar admission, (2.) to be able to testify as a witness for him in Bar proceedings brought against him in retaliation for his representing myself and other clients to exercise their ADA rights, and (3.) for a doctor examination the Florida Supreme Court ordered him to attend so I would not be left with Autism unsupervised, since we could not get a nurse.

 

The Florida Supreme Court and its justices individually, REFUSED to provide any of the Title II ADA reasonable accommodations requested. And they did so by REFUSING to accept or review the appx. 2000 pages of medical and disability documentation my lawyer provided to them by filing them, because the Florida Supreme Court and Florida state court system has NO methods to receive the disability documentation necessary to understand the disability. They punished and browbeat my lawyer for my Autism and blindness, and willfully refused to understand I have been in a “minimally conscious” incompetency program.

 

Most of all, the Florida Supreme Court and those it supervises and licenses, fail to understand that reasonable accommodations, reasonable modifications, and auxiliary aids and services are being used in many contexts to remove incompetency (e.g. immigration courts), and that ADA accommodations are not “courtesies” but mandates, and that people like me with Autism, traumatic brain injury, and other severe disabilities cannot navigate any court process at all without these Title II ADA accommodations that are our civil right.   

 

Instead, the Florida Supreme Court intentionally retaliated by punishing my lawyer, REFUSING to receive the disability documentation required by Title II of the ADA, REFUSING to provide any reasonable accommodations, and issuing an Order to Show Cause against him to take away his law license, deprive me of my lawyer, and send the message to all the lawyers in the state of Florida they are NOT to enforce Title II of the ADA in this state. I am aware that at least three lawyers who tried to help me access the disability accommodations I require were retaliated against their Bar licenses for having tried to help me exercise my ADA rights. This is no accident, but instead is an intentional pattern and practice of retaliation intended to oppress Florida’s severely disabled population and chill disabled people like me from Court access through extreme harsh punitive measures simply for having tried to exercise the Title II ADA rights the Florida Supreme Court does not seem to understand and to which they (unlike other courts) are extremely hostile.

 

I have been told in response to making ADA accommodations requests by lawyers approved of by the Florida Supreme Court, that “that sounds bizarre” and “I never heard of that before.” They say these things in refusing my ADA accommodations because they have NO CLUE what Title II of the ADA is and what their obligations are under it.    

 

The Florida Supreme Court is REFUSING to allow me to be a witness for my lawyer, REFUSING to allow me access to file or defend any court case in the Florida state courts, and REFUSING me any access at all to try out for my Bar admission. The Florida Supreme Court has repeatedly instructed its Clerk to tell me ‘its too bad if you can’t see and lose your case because you can’t see.’

 

All of this violates Tennessee v. Lane, 541 U.S. 509 (2004), Title II of the ADA, and 42 USC Sec. 12203(a) and (b). I have associational right to complain about the discrimination and retaliation against my lawyer, as well as myself, because without him, I cannot get ANY lawyer in the state of Florida trained in Autism who will raise my Title II ADA claims in the hostile environment the Florida Supreme Court continues to maintain.  

 

The retaliation by the Florida Supreme Court came closely after (1.) the US Department of Justice issued a right to sue letter against The Florida Bar and a Florida state court in my favor, and (2.) my lawyer filed a Title II ADA case in the Orlando Division US District Court seeking the remedy of requiring the Florida Courts and all state judges and lawyers to be trained in their obligations under Title II of the ADA.

 

I keep repeatedly being physically injured, subjected to extreme mental abuse, and other unsafe conditions as a direct result of the discrimination and retaliation against me and my lawyer by the Florida Supreme Court and its justices individually.

 

The entire disabled population in the state of Florida is harmed by this flagrant intentional pattern and practice of unlawful discrimination and retaliation by the Florida Supreme Court and its justices, individually. They do not seem to understand one single thing about Autism or blindness or epilepsy, and have conveyed the message that they REFUSE to.

 

I cannot even get access to bring a case for restraining order against neighbors who have been shooting at me, to enforce contract rights for my business, or to file or defend any case in the Florida state courts including my Olmstead v. L.C. community living rights, much less access to my Florida Bar admission, due to the intentional REFUSAL of the Florida Supreme Court to (1.) train themselves in their obligations under Title II of the ADA, (2.) train all judges and lawyers in the state, (3.) and provide the reasonable accommodations I require, my doctors reported I need, and I have received by all sorts of other state and federal courts (other than the Florida Supreme Court) and agencies and businesses since at least 1996.  

 

I am asking the United States Department of Justice to intervene and enforce Title II of the ADA and 42 U.S.C. Sec. 12203 fully and strongly against the Florida Supreme Court, state judges, and lawyers, and the state court system. This is a wholesale Autism apartheid the Florida Supreme Court maintains in the state of Florida as bad as that formerly maintained in Soweto, South Africa. We who have Autism and blindness have NO access rights ANYWHERE in the state of Florida.

 

This is being caused by the Florida Supreme Court’s willful refusal to comply with Title II of the ADA. If they refuse to comply, no one else in the state of Florida will do so, either.

 

Respectfully,

Mary Katherine Day-Petrano

Autistic Shot At By "Normal" Law Enforcement Neighbors Calling Her "A Retard"

She has severe Autism ...

The "normal" neighbors next door who work with law enforcement called her "a retard" ...

And then they began shooting towards her day and night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgAaf8lHJfQ&feature=c4-overview&list=UULEwkvJYAkrgCjHNh14U3xA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLhamrIMp5A

The Dumb Things NeuroTypical Officials Say About How The Relationship Between Americans With Disabilities Act (or Other Act) "Reasonable Accommodations" And "Incompetency" Affects The Autistic People

Autistic adults are possibly the best firsthand source for experiencing the DUMB things NeuroTypical officials (and NeuroTypical people more generally), say. 

Recently, I was the recipient of a truly irrational Court Order / Memorandum by a well meaning Federal Judge who clearly was not someone who like myself has read over 15,000 ADA cases and law review articles. And I understand she probably did not have the time to learn the ADA this way. But millions of disabled Americans do learn the ADA as the only way to try to assert our rights. 

And this conundrum between the knowledge GAP most disabled Americans have vs. the officials and others who determine our fate often leads to some Amazingly irrational reasoning. 

One of these gaps involve The Dumb Things NeuroTypical Officials Say About How The Relationship Between Americans With Disabilities Act "Reasonable Accommodations" And "Incompetency"  Affects The Autistic People.

The recent statement was: 'reasonable accommodations and incompetence are two different things. If you can get an accommodation, you are not incompetent.' Huh ? Come again ? (What if you "can get" the mythological "accommodation," but they don't give it to you ? What then ? Does the Court just take relief against the person with incompetencies without REMOVING them ? And how does that satisfy due process ?).

I'll explain what's wrong with this NeuroTypical way of thinking. 

Most NeuroTypicals are so caught up in themselves and their kind, they really don't think a whole lot about disabled Americans or what it is like to be a disabled American -- much less an Autistic American. Autistic Americans are particularly affected by the above line of mis-conceived thinking. That's why I will go to some length at deconstructing the fallacy.

First, it must be admitted that "History of disabled Americans and disability rights" is (1.) not taught in our public schools, (2.) not taught in our colleges and universities for the most part, (3.) not taught in law schools, and (4.) not required to pass a bar exam to qualify for a license to advise all types of officials what their duties are. This situation keeps our elected and appointed officials in the dark about a significant segment of the American population. 

Disabled Americans see such ignorance, inattention, and lack of awareness every day, as the "diversity" pages of official websites such as The Florida Bar and California State Bar, their bar examiners, and the university law schools that graduate future lawyers depict racial, ethnic, and gender symbols, but never the face of a disabled American. Historically, the "diversity" equation has not included Americans with disabilities and in particular lacks neurodiversity. But to see this, the person (particularly if NeuroTypical) needs to be trained to "spot the issue."

This historical entrenchment of pervasive and institutionalized segregation of disabled Americans continues in thousands of state and local laws, and even some federal rules and some of the older statutes, that continue to embody the discriminatory social medical model of disability which causes the NeuroTypical mind to conceive of disability as a medical defect in the individual. Such disability policies are rooted in core NeuroTypical assumptions about the nature of disabilities and the obligations of both individuals and society. See http://www.dredf.org/international/waddington.html. 

The social medical model of disability sees disability as a defect in an individual that renders the person unable to work or function in society in a conventional "normal" way. See http://www.dredf.org/international/waddington.html. By "normal," NeuroTypicals mean by conformity to their cultural, ethnic "social norm." But, as the Autistic people say, 'normal is only a setting on a washer or dryer,' as science has found a vast diversity in the human species. Rather than adapting their NeuroTypically designed institutions to accommodate disabilities, people with disabilities are directed toward a separate and unequal parallel track that provides income and services apart from the institutions that serve the NeuroTypical majority. See http://www.dredf.org/international/waddington.html. Kinda sorta like "colored" and "white" drinking fountains.

The NeuroTypical social medical model arose like the Phoenix from the ashes of the Aryan Eugenics movement of "the perfect human," and has proven dominent because it poses no threat to mainstream NeuroTypical institutions -- it permits the NeuroTypical people to establish public services and "social" institutions without regard for people with disabilities, since it adopts the premis that medical limitations will inevitably render people with disabilities unable to participate. The exclusion of people with disabilities is thus accepted as an inevitable natural consequence of "medical realities." See http://www.dredf.org/international/waddington.html. The separate and unequal parallel Apartheid track is an essential component of the NeuroTypical social medical model because it justifies the failure to include people with disabilities in NeuroTypical mainstream institutions -- by allowing the NeuroTypical people to exclude people with disabilities "with a clear conscience." Id.       

The NeuroTypical social medical model places heavy emphasis on sorting and labeling. It inevitably relies on mechanisms  to determine which track any given individual should be directed to. It inevitably comes to rely on the notion disabled Americans are an identifiable category of people that can be treated apart from the mainstream of NeuroTypical society. See http://www.dredf.org/international/waddington.html. Like Rosa Parks was required to "sit in the back of the bus."  

The civil rights model legislatively re-directs the focus where it belongs on the societal response to disability. The civil rights model rejects the premis that NeuroTypical social exclusion is an inevitable consequence of disability. See http://www.dredf.org/international/waddington.html. Under this view, Americans with disabilities have historically been excluded from NeuroTypical social institutions because those institutions have failed to adapt and design themselves to the needs of the disabled, even as they routinely adapt to the needs of NeuroTypical others. This failure to accommodate flows from NeuroTypicals conscious and unconscious aversions to Americans with disabilities. Id. Seen in this light, the problem is one of discrimination, rather than the need of the person or their caregiver to address that person's inherent medical limitations "imposed by the disability." Id. Under the civil rights model, the goal is to reform NeuroTypical mainstream institutions to include people with disabilities, id., rather than to maintain the parallel track of disenfranchising, disempowering Jim Crow laws.  

The two models stem from diametrically opposed assumptions and tend toward conflicting objectives. The NeuroTypical social medical model views disability as a medically determined status. By contrast, the civil rights model legislatively determines the limitations relating to medical conditions are the result of an interaction between the condition itself and the social context and environmental design that gives significance to the condition. See http://www.dredf.org/international/waddington.html. Accordingly, under the civil rights legislation, there is no ojectively fixed status of disability, id. -- such as seen in the historical "incapacity" and "incompetency" Jim Crow labling laws.     

A number of consequences flow from this disparity in assumptions. See http://www.dredf.org/international/waddington.html.The NeuroTypical social medical model is built on the idea of separation, while the civil rights legislation focuses on inclusion and removes Americans with disabilities to the separate and unequal parallel Apartheid track system. The civil rights legislation is directed to abolishing separate and unequal institutions for Americans with disabilities and integrating such persons into the NeuroTypical mainstream. Id.

Additionally, the NeuroTypical social medical model that places emphasis on tracking and sorting thrusts "the inabilities" of Americans with disabilities into flashing neon lights to signal NeuroTypical others. Such Apartheid systems require Americans with disabilities to "validate their status" by proving their various functional inabilities in the form of a "confession" of their "inabilities," See http://www.dredf.org/international/waddington.html, as an extremely damaging hazing entry to the separate and unequal parallel Apartheid track. This process is intended to "mark" Americans with disabilities to reinforce the NeuroTypical stereotypes about the "incompetence" of people with disabilities. Id.  

In contrast, the civil rights legislation emphasizes the capabilities of Americans with disabilities, requiring obstacles to disabilities to be restructured. See http://www.dredf.org/international/waddington.html.

The NeuroTypical social medical model and the civil rights legislation cannot co-exist. The two work at cross-purposes. See http://www.dredf.org/international/waddington.html. 

Support for the NeuroTypical social medical model undercuts and conflicts with the civil rights legislation. The NeuroTypical people see the civil rights legislation as "a threat" to NeuroTypical institutions that "provide benefits" to Americans with disabilities, id., as well as treat them as no different than Big-Pharma / nursing home commodities (like hogs or cattle) or sheltered workshop / residential group home slave property that brings a buck and serves as a "job creation machine" for the NeuroTypical people through a separate and unequal Apartheid track.    

The concept of "reasonable accommodation" is fundamental to remedy the separate and unequal Americans with disabilities Apartheid caste system, so remarkably in its segregation like Nelson Mandela's Soweto, that has existed in the United States for far too long. 

Most NeuroTypicals lack the proper understanding that "reasonable accommodation" is the civil rights integration mechanism aimed at removing disability-related obstacles that are the Neurologically Different's "Jim Crow" laws. The United States, and most state and local laws still contain a parallel track for the disabled, who by definition are "neurologially different," based on strategies of exclusion rather than strategies of inclusion.  

A reasonable accommodation is an alteration to some element of the status quo that is intended to enable a person with a disability to participate in work, higher education, community living, or public life -- that is, to be in the World, to the same extent as the non-disabled. See http://www.harvardlawreview.org/media/pdf/vol126_reasonable_accomodations_law.pdf. As Autistic people say, Autism is "a different way of being," "not lesser," and we have a right to be in the World, Autistically. 

The archaic NeuroTypical social medical model "incompentency" criteria and  guardianship laws are a disability-related obstacle aimed at exclusion via a sorting and tracking mechanism that contravenes the ADA's Title II implementing regulation, 28 C.F.R. Sec. 35.130(b)(8). Their goal is to (1.) make sure the American with disability confesses they are a defective human being, (2.) reinforces the disabled American's second-class citizenship and treatment as "lesser," (3.) "marks" the disabled American for the separate and unequal Apartheid segregation track, where the person's freedom of choice, self-determination, independence, economic-self-sufficiency, respect, dignity, and safety are removed.

Autistic Americans are particularly affected, because while we have our own ethnic culture, identity (Spectrumites), beliefs, language (Autistic), and have formed an community sometimes called "Aspie Tribe," the NeuroTypical "incapacity" and "incompetency" separate and unequal Apartheid segregation track does not take our indigenous Tribe into account. Nor does it evaluate Autistic people by our inventor / creative / object-based / systematizing capabilities - the ones that have made a number of us Savants and Nobel Prize winners, inventors of many things that have benefitted humankind, and propelled the computer industry, even as many of us cannot feed ourselves and have many neurological issues. Instead, it evaluates us on our use of a different language than the NeuroTypical majority, who label our Autistic language as 'inability to speak,' 'inability to write,' 'incomprehensible,' 'deviant,' and 'abnormal.'

This is no different than the use of Voting "literacy tests" to screen out black Americans at the poll, or labeling their status under the NeuroTypical social medical model as the psychiatric "illness" of drapetomania, that is 'the inability to turn white.'

Similarly, homosexuals were a "mental illness" condition in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders based on their sexual orientation, that is not much different than the "extreme male brain" of Autistic women that gives rise to our systematizing abilities. 

Autistic savants are defined as having a paradox of savant abilities in the same person who has severe neurological brain disabilities. The civil rights "reasonable accommodation" mandate is HOW the incompetencies at certain tasks are REMOVED to level the playing field -- without destroying the talents. 

Every disability or impairment involves one or more task incompetencies. To impose the NeuroTypical social medical model separate and unequal Apartheid "incapacity" or "incompetency" sorting and tracking suffers from vagueness and overbreadth, is over- and under-inclusive, and mis-conceives the civil rights legislation "reasonable accommodations" mandate, its purpose, and underlying inclusion concept. For example, In Re: McDonough, Petitioner, 457 Mass. 512 (Aug, 11, 2010), clearly demonstrates the "reasonable accommodation" mandate is HOW (the permissible mechanism by which) such an "incapacity" or "incompetency" are removed. See id. at http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/457/457mass512.html. Not by a NeuroTypical social medical model separate and unequal Apartheid "incapacity" or "incompetency" sorting and tracking label with a prior restraint of speech via guardian proxy, but by providing a "reasonable accommodation." In U.S. Airways, Inc. v. Barnett, 535 U.S. 391, 400 (2002), Justice Breyer reasoned that the concept of "accommodation" contains an implicit effectiveness requirement.

So when Autistic people like me encounter one of these GAPS involving The Dumb Things NeuroTypical Officials Say About How The Relationship Between Americans With Disabilities Act "Reasonable Accommodations" And "Incompetency"  Affects The Autistic People, it is easy to see from the Autistic perspective how this is an indignity and an affront. Oppression and subjugation are wrong. 

It is an indignity and an affront because it signifies we Autistic people should be treated lesser (and sometimes dangerously by others) solely because the NeuroTypical social medical model of separate and unequal Apartheid remains ENTRENCHED. Even in the minds and the thinking of otherwise well-meaning NeuroTypical people. 

It is like being told to drink from the "coloreds only" drinking fountain. Like being told to sit in the back of the bus. Like being sent to separate and unequal schools. Like becoming a commodity or being treated as other people's property. 

It is NOT Okay. 

What comes to mind is Dr. Suess' story "The Star-Bellied Sneeches." There were the sneeches with stars and those without. The Star-bellied sneeches wanted to maintain their superiority. Then the "reasonable accommodation" machine came to town, and put stars on those without so Sneechville became color blind. This, like the civil rights "reasonable accommodation" legislation upset the Star-bellied sneeches, because no one could tell the two different groups apart. So they paid to have their stars removed, to maintain the separate and unequal Apartheid system. But before long, due to Neurological Differences and the "reasonable accommodation" machine that was constantly in action, together with the outlawing of the NeuroTypical social medical model, ultimately an integrated color blind society was achieved. 

For those NeuroTyicals who still say the Incredibly Dumb Things, have you taken a look yet at the DSM-V ? "With 'diagnostic criteria' that include[s] 
disliking school, fidgeting, disobedience (for children), dissatisfaction with one’s sexual performance, unhappiness, shyness, getting angry, and playing the horses (for adults), Dr. Chodoff ... wrote that this diagnosis would “encourage the quest for a drug to cure the disorder of being human.” See http://luc.edu/media/lucedu/law/students/publications/llj/pdfs/hass.pdf (quoting Dr. Paul Chodoff, Letter to the Editor: Proposed Diagnosis, PSYCHIATRIC NEWS (Jan. 
21, 2005), http://psychnews.psychiatryonline.org/newsarticle.aspx?articleid=108472). 

As the DSM-V (and VI, VII, and VIII) expands the population of Americans with disabilities, the archaic NeuroTypical social medical model "incompentency" criteria and  guardianship laws disability-related obstacle aimed at exclusion via a sorting and tracking mechanism will get EVERYONE. (That is, unless you're not human).

It is time to start re-THINKING this IRRATIONAL NeuroTypical Apartheid system of segregation. It is SEPARATE and UNEQUAL. 

And it is UN-American. 

Do The NeuroTypical Elected Officials of Alachua County Value Board REALLY Think an Autistic Person Who Can't Feed Herself Can "Overcome The Presumption of Correctness ?"

I am writing another blog post on the Autism abuses that are so pervasive in our American society practiced by NeuroTypical elected officials, this time, the elected officials of the Alachua County, Florida Value Adjustment Board. 

It has been reported to me these officials, who are members of a Title II Americans with Disabilities Act "public entity" (the name for all state and local governmental entities that are by the plain language of Congress' Act subject to comply with it), said at open public hearing today 'Title II of the ADA has nothing to do with us.' 

These same officials also calculate Florida property taxes by the following scientific method: 'Well, the property appraiser dropped it.' Yes, you brilliant rocket scientists - but does that mean it is what the property's actual valuation is ? 

The officials did not want to hear from this Autistic gimp, because after the Alachua County Value Adjustment Board was directed in writing by Florida Dept. of Revenue that (1.) they "shall" comply with Title II of the ADA, and (2.) that the ADA pre-empts conflicting Florida law, the officials removed the Title II ADA effective communication reasonable accommodations and reasonable modifications they previously provided to me on numerous occasions over the past 2 years, and did so to make CERTAIN I would not be able to be heard. 

Yeah !!! Brillilant thinking officials - if you use the removal of medically necessary reasonable accommodations as means not to hear from an Autistic property owner, (light bulbs are going off in the Neuro-Typical officials heads), the County can do a Takings of property without due process of law or paying just compensation !!! Yeah !!! Brilliant idea, and so much in the favor of stuffing the official money coffers full while budget cuts are hampering the County. 

But even better, these Alachua County Value Adjustment Board officials are so hip on Autism, even more so than the Autism doctors at Yale, that they believe a severely Autistic adult who cannot feed herself is capable of "overcoming the presumption of correctness" such that her failure to do so can be assigned as "cause" to tax her worthless property to the HILT -- just like her failure to be able to feed herself, if it should result in her starvation, can be assigned to her as "cause" of her death. 

RATIONAL thinking. 

Rational Alachua County Value Adjustment Board officials always think rationally - so much so, they say three properties that: (1.) have marketable title that allows the ability for mortgage refinancing, (2.) have easements for right of legal ingress and egress, (3.) do not involve the daily risk of death from being smashed to smitherines by a CSX train, and (4.) do not face CSX double trackage being laid by taking a chunk of their front field, is "comparable" to our property that (1.) lacks marketable title and cannot obtain mortgage refinancing, (2.) has no easement for right of legal ingress and egress, (3.) involves daily risk of death from CSX train collision that has killed one woman on our CSX railroad crossing already and the Fed Ex driver two crossings up the road in the same locale, and (4.) faces CSX double trackage being laid in the near future that will take a chunk of our front field. 

When the Alachua County Value Adjustment board officials today were rationally analysing the "comparability" on the above facts, one official remarked about the Fed Ex driver smashed by a CSX train in torrential rains who was dragged 1-2 crossings South before the train could stop, and was WIDELY publicized in the news, "Well, did he commit suicide ?"

RATIONAL thinking !!! It is alive and well in Alachua County Value Adjustment Board officials !!!

It seems, however, that the only RATIONAL person at the Alachua County Value Adjustment Board hearing today was the Property Appraiser and his attorney, Val Bates - when Hubby asked: "Who here knows what Title II of the ADA is ?," Val Bates said "I do."

THANK GOD someone had a rational, thinking brain today.

But that does not mean the valuation of the property is accurate. 

How is trivializing the value and worth of an Autistic person's and Autism family's lives by attributing all CSX railroad crossing deaths as 'committing suicide' a proper basis for valuation of real property for property tax purposes using "comparable" properties that do not have the property attribute of having to cross a CSX railroad crossing every day ?

Yeah, I would like to see the statute for that. 

And why do NeuroTypical officials in our government THINK they can get away with these kinds of affronts to the Autistic people ? 

Because they still think we are retards too stupid and undeserving to know the difference.

These indignities, separate and unequal, and unjust mistreatment is really no different in kind than the similar way Autism parents are treated every time they try to get our public schools to give their Autistic child a Free and Appropriate Public Education ("FAPE") through compliance with a proper IEP.

I KNOW Autism families everywhere can identify and will know what I am talking about. 

It is just not right to single out a discrete and insular minority class of Autistic people and make them perpetuated at the bottom of a segregated American caste system.      

On another note, does Fed Ex know the Alachua County Value Adjustment Board just defamed its driver, Martin Beckles, by innuendo saying he dies crossing a CSX railroad track 'by committing suicide ?'
   

The Saga Goes On: The Carl B. Schwait, Trevor Rhodes, Richard Bower, Nationwide Insurance Company Called Me (A Non-Lawyer) "A Lawyer" Issue To Retaliate My Autism

I have reported in my blog posts before about the ongoing saga that happened when Honorable Magistrate Gary R. Jones, made a judicial "fact finding" that (1.) I "suffers from autism," Petranos v. Old Republic et al., N.D.Fla. No. 1:12-cv-00086-SPM/GRJ, Dkt. 116, pg. 5, and that I am "a licensed California lawyer,' id., Dkt. 74, pg. 1 n.1. 

Carl B. Schwait is a law professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law in Gainesville, Florida, and a member of The Florida Bar Board of Governors. Trevor Rhodes and Richard Bower are University of Florida Levin College of Law school graduates. They called me (an adult with Autism and Fragile X mental retardation) who is a non-lawyer "a lawyer" to cheat me out of $100,000 in insurance benefits Nationwide owed me under the insurance policy my family had with them. 

Autism families everywhere know all too well how big insurance companies will use ANY sleazy tactic to deny coverage of insurance benefits due the moment they learn the insured has Autism, no matter what kind of insurance it is. This is a KEY problem all across the United States impacting the Autism community adversely. 

I have since learned that the pleadings I could not see to read that kept being served on me by Carl B. Schwait, Trevor Rhodes, Richard Bower, and Nationwide insurance company in Petranos v. Old Republic, et al., N.D.Fla. No. 1:12-cv-00086-SPM/GRJ were the impetus that caused the Honorable Magistrate Gary R. Jones to adjudicate me, a non-lawyer, 'a licensed member of the California Bar.' 

Carl B. Schwait, Esq. and Nationwide insurance company, through and in concert with their counsel, Trevor Rhodes, Esq. and Richard Bower, Esq., filed pleadings in Petranos v. Old Republic, et al., N.D.Fla. No. 1:12-cv-00086-SPM/GRJ, making knowing and material false statement of fact that I am ‘a licensed lawyer’ knowing I am not: see id., Dkt. 213, pg. 2 (“Plaintiffs, a law school graduate and Florida attorney and member of the Florida Bar”) (plural, calling both undersigned David Petrano and M.K.D.P. each a member of The Florida Bar); id., Dkt.171, pg. 7 (“Plaintiffs are both law school graduates with David Petrano being a member of the Florida Bar and Mary Katherine Day-Petrano having passed California’s Bar;” “Other courts have recognized Plaintiffs’ background as significant to include a legal education and bar licensing”) (plural, calling me a licensed member of the California Bar), pg. 11 (“these particular Plaintiffs, law school graduates and Bar members”) (plural, calling me a licensed member of the Bar); id., Dkt. 19, pg. 6 (same); id., Dkt. 55, pg. 5 (same); id., Dkt. 15 (same). 

To the extent I was not able to see to  read and understand Carl B. Schwait's, Trevor Rhodes,'  Richard Bower's, and Nationwide insurance company's pleadings due to my disabilities during the Petranos v. Old Republic, et al., N.D.Fla. No. 1:12-cv-00086-SPM/GRJ case due to their refusal to accommodate my disabilities, I now see that Honorable Magistrate Gary R. Jones was actively misled by Carl B. Schwait, Trevor Rhodes, Richard Bower, and Nationwide insurance company when it resulted in his judicial "fact finding" I am 'a California lawyer.' id., Dkt, 74 n.1. 

That fact finding has never been vacated or removed, and it has been widely published on the Internet as well as on legal databases like LEXIS -- despite my REPEATEDLY demanding that they STOP calling me, a non-lawyer, "a lawyer."

I tried to file a Florida Bar disciplinary grievance complaint against Carl B. Schwait, Trevor Rhodes, and Richard Bower for knowingly calling me, a non-lawyer, "a lawyer" to cheat me out of $100,000 in Nationwide insurance benefits due to me. The Florida Bar lawyer regulation officers, Kenneth Marvin, Jeffrey Brown, Heidi Brewer, Lawrence Sellers, Daniel Nee, and Maritz Arroyo (Florida Bar's response) told me it was okay for Carl B. Schwait, Trevor Rhodes, and Richard Bower to knowingly call me, a non-lawyer, "a lawyer" to financially exploit me as a severely Autistic adult. 

In retaliation, The Florida Bar lawyer regulation officers, Kenneth Marvin, Jeffrey Brown, Lawrence Sellers, Daniel Nee, and Maritz Arroyo, and Carl B. Schwait (sitting as head of the Eighth Judicial Circuit Grievance Committee "A" on the writing distributed to my husband, deciding his own fate) brought attorney discipline charges against my husband, David F. Petrano, and made "probable cause" findings in the absense of providing him his requested Title II Americans With Disabilities Act "reasonable accommnodations," and made findings my husband 'made material false statement of fact' when he repeatedly filed pleadings and told people I am not a licensed lawyer. Lawrence Sellers and Daniel Nee area also law school grads of University of Florida Levin College of Law. 

I wanted to update this ongoing saga, because THIS is how adults with Autism and Autism families are being mis-treated across this Country.

Lawrence Sellers, by the way, works for Holland & Knight law firm, a law firm with a notorious reputation of discrimination in its recent historical past.

I want to repeat to the public: I am NOT a lawyer. I have NEVER held myself out to be a lawyer. 

I have REPEATEDLY asked Carl B. Schwait, Trevor Rhodes, Richard Bower, and Nationwide insurance company to REMOVE all published statements referring to me as "a lawyer" when they know I am not, including the "fact finding" of Honorable Gary R. Jones which their knowing material false statements of fact induced.

In closing, one might have to ask: if The Florida Bar and members of its Board of Governors are going around committing the despicable misconduct of knowingly calling a non-lawyer "a lawyer," can they even regulate themselves ? Ot is it time to abolish The Florida Bar and give lawyer regulation in Florida over to the Department of Business and Professional Regulation ?  

One thing is sure - this is Autism abuse, and The Florida Bar lacks proper safeguards to protect the Autistic disabled public from harm by its own officers.          

HERE is my response to the US National Security who has told me they have been on my Facebook page (same as Trevor Rhodes admitted in writing he has been on my same Facebook page) -- See ACLU FISA Order Lawsuit

HERE is my response to the US National Security who has told me they have been on my Facebook page (same as Trevor Rhodes admitted in writing he has been on my same Facebook page, in Petranos v. Old Republic et al., N.D.Fla. No. 1:12-cv-00086-SPM/GRJ, Dkt. 196-3), where I have received death threats, where I have been told my Magistrate Jones case (removal case) outcome was "fixed" to go against me (similar to how Trevor Rhodes attempted to manipulate my bankruptcy case in disobedience of a Senior District Court Judge's Order as I posted in two posts of earlier today), where I have been mocked over my daughter being threatened under FISA Orders, and where I have been blasted with known epilepsy seizure triggers -- I have been a Sprint, Verizon, and AT&T customer under the FISA Orders mentioned over the 7 year period and I have the same standing to file a new lawsuit for injunctive relief just like the one below:

"UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK



AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION; AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION FOUNDATION; NEW YORK CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION; and NEW YORK CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION FOUNDATION,

Plaintiffs,

v.

JAMES R. CLAPPER, in his official capacity as Director of National Intelligence; KEITH B. ALEXANDER, in his official capacity as Director of the National Security Agency and Chief of the Central Security Service; CHARLES T. HAGEL, in his official capacity as Secretary of Defense; ERIC
H. HOLDER, in his official capacity as Attorney General of the United States; and ROBERT S. MUELLER III, in his official capacity as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation,

Defendants.



ECF CASE COMPLAINT FOR
DECLARATORY AND INJUNCTIVE RELIEF



Case No.    Hon.  






Arthur N. Eisenberg (AE-2012) Christopher T. Dunn (CD-3991) New York Civil Liberties Union
Foundation
125 Broad Street, 19th Floor New York, NY 10004 Phone: (212) 607-3300
Fax: (212) 607-3318
aeisenberg@nyclu.org

Jameel Jaffer (JJ-4653) Alex Abdo (AA-0527)
Brett Max Kaufman (BK-2827) Patrick Toomey (PT-1452) Catherine Crump (CC-4067) American Civil Liberties Union
Foundation
125 Broad Street, 18th Floor New York, NY 10004 Phone: (212) 549-2500
Fax: (212) 549-2654
jjaffer@aclu.org


June 11, 2013

COMPLAINT FOR DECLARATORY AND INJUNCTIVE RELIEF

1. This lawsuit challenges the government’s dragnet acquisition of Plaintiffs’ telephone records under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, 50 U.S.C. § 1861.1 In response to information published by the media, the government has acknowledged that it is relying on Section 215 to collect “metadata” about every phone call made or received by residents of the United States. The practice is akin to snatching every American’s address book—with annotations detailing whom we spoke to, when we talked, for how long, and from where. It gives the government a comprehensive record of our associations and public movements, revealing a wealth of detail about our familial, political, professional, religious, and intimate associations.
2. The government has confirmed the authenticity of an order issued six weeks ago by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (“FISC”) requiring Verizon Business Network Services Inc. (“VBNS”) to turn over, every day, metadata about the calls made by each of its subscribers over the three-month period ending on July 19, 2013. Government officials have indicated that the VBNS order is part of a program that has been in place for seven years and that collects records of all telephone communications of every customer of a major phone company, including Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint.
3. Plaintiffs the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation are current VBNS subscribers whose communications have already been monitored by the government under the VBNS order and whose communications continue to be monitored under that order now. Plaintiffs the New York Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Union Foundation are former customers of VBNS whose contract of service recently expired but whose telephony metadata likely remains in government databases. The


1 “The Patriot Act” is the common name for the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001, Pub. L. No. 107-56, 115 Stat. 272.

1

government’s surveillance of their communications (hereinafter “Mass Call Tracking”) allows the government to learn sensitive and privileged information about their work and clients, and it is likely to have a chilling effect on whistleblowers and others who would otherwise contact Plaintiffs for legal assistance. This surveillance is not authorized by Section 215 and violates the First and Fourth Amendments. Plaintiffs bring this suit to obtain a declaration that the Mass Call Tracking is unlawful; to enjoin the government from continuing the Mass Call Tracking under the VBNS order or any successor thereto; and to require the government to purge from its databases all of the call records related to Plaintiffs’ communications collected pursuant to the Mass Call Tracking.
JURISDICTION AND VENUE

4. This case arises under the Constitution and the laws of the United States and presents a federal question within this Court’s jurisdiction under Article III of the Constitution and 28 U.S.C. § 1331. The Court also has jurisdiction under the Administrative Procedure Act, 5
U.S.C. § 702. The Court has authority to grant declaratory relief pursuant to the Declaratory Judgment Act, 28 U.S.C. §§ 2201–2202. The Court has authority to award costs and attorneys’ fees under 28 U.S.C. § 2412.
5. Venue is proper in this district under 28 U.S.C. § 1391(b)(2), (c)(2).

PLAINTIFFS

6. The American Civil Liberties Union (“ACLU”) is a 501(c)(4) non-profit, non- partisan organization that engages in public education and lobbying about the constitutional principles of liberty and equality. The ACLU has more than 500,000 members, including members in every state. The ACLU is incorporated in Washington, D.C. and has its principal place of business in New York City.

7. The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation (“ACLUF”) is a 501(c)(3) organization that educates the public about civil-liberties issues and employs lawyers who provide legal representation free of charge in cases involving civil liberties. It is incorporated in New York State and has its principal place of business in New York City.
8. The New York Civil Liberties Union (“NYCLU”)  is a 501(c)(4) non-profit, non- partisan organization that functions as the ACLU affiliate in New York and that has as its mission the advancement and protection of civil liberties and civil rights. The NYCLU is incorporated in New York and has its principal place of business in New York City.
9. The New York Civil Liberties Union Foundation (“NYCLUF”) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, non-partisan organization whose mission is to defend civil rights and civil liberties and to preserve and extend constitutionally guaranteed rights to people whose rights have historically been denied. The NYCLUF provides counsel in lawsuits seeking to advance civil liberties and civil rights. It is incorporated in Delaware and has its principal place of business in New York City.
DEFENDANTS

10. Defendant James R. Clapper is the Director of National Intelligence (“DNI”). DNI Clapper has ultimate authority over the activities of the intelligence community.
11. Defendant Lt. Gen. Keith B. Alexander is the Director of the National Security Agency (“NSA”) and the Chief of the Central Security Service. Lt. Gen. Alexander has ultimate authority for supervising and implementing all operations and functions of the NSA, the agency responsible for conducting surveillance authorized by the challenged law.
12. Defendant Charles T. Hagel is the Secretary of Defense. Secretary Hagel has ultimate authority over the Department of Defense, of which the NSA is a component.

13. Defendant Eric H. Holder is the Attorney General of the United States. Attorney General Holder has ultimate authority over the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) and is responsible for overseeing aspects of the challenged statute.
14. Defendant Robert S. Mueller III is the Director of the FBI and is responsible for applications made to the FISC under Section 215 of the Patriot Act.
BACKGROUND

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act

15. In 1978, Congress enacted the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (“FISA”) to govern surveillance conducted for foreign-intelligence purposes. The statute created the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (“FISC”), a court composed of seven (now eleven) federal district court judges, and empowered the court to grant or deny government applications for surveillance orders in foreign-intelligence investigations.
16. Congress enacted FISA after years of in-depth congressional investigation by the committees chaired by Senator Frank Church and Representative Otis Pike, which revealed that the Executive Branch had engaged in widespread warrantless surveillance of United States citizens—including journalists, activists, and members of Congress—“who engaged in no criminal activity and who posed no genuine threat to the national security.”
Section 215 of the Patriot Act

17. Section 215 of the Patriot Act is often referred to as FISA’s “business records” provision. When originally enacted in 1998, this provision permitted the FBI to apply to the FISC for an order to obtain business records of hotels, motels, car and truck rental agencies, and storage rental facilities.

18. Section 215 broadened this authority by eliminating any limitation on the types of businesses or entities whose records may be seized. In addition, Section 215 expanded the scope of the items that the FBI may obtain using this authority from “records” to “any tangible things (including books, records, papers, documents, and other items).”
19. Section 215 also relaxed the standard that the FBI is required to meet to obtain an order to seize these records. Previously, FISA required the FBI to present to the FISC “specific and articulable facts giving reason to believe that the person to whom the records pertain [was] a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power.” In its current form, Section 215 requires only that the records or things sought be “relevant” to an authorized investigation “to obtain foreign intelligence information not concerning a United States person or to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities.”
20. Production orders issued under Section 215 are accompanied by gag orders generally forbidding recipients from revealing “that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has sought or obtained tangible things.” Recipients may challenge gag orders “[n]ot less than 1 year after the date of the issuance of the production order.” If a recipient challenges a gag order, the FISC must treat the government’s claim “that disclosure may endanger the national security of the United States or interfere with diplomatic relations . . . as conclusive.”
21. For the past several years, members of Congress have been warning the public that the Executive Branch was exceeding the limits of the Patriot Act. In 2009, Senator Russ Feingold stated during a hearing that “there . . . is information about the use of Section 215 orders that I believe Congress and the American people deserve to know,” adding later that “Section 215 has been misused.” In 2011, Senator Ron Wyden declared, “When the American people find out how their government has secretly interpreted the Patriot Act, they will be

stunned and they will be angry.” Similarly, Senator Mark Udall protested that “Americans would be alarmed if they knew how this law is being carried out.”
22. On June 5, 2013, The Guardian disclosed that, under Section 215, the NSA has been acquiring the metadata for every phone call made or received by customers of VBNS “on an ongoing daily basis.”
23. Since the disclosure of the VBNS order last week and the government’s official acknowledgement of it, the outcry in Congress has increased sharply. Representative Jim Sensenbrenner, an author of the Patriot Act and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee at the time of Section 215’s passage, called the Section 215 surveillance program “an abuse of that law.” He wrote that, “based on the scope of the released order, both the administration and the FISA court are relying on an unbounded interpretation of the act that Congress never intended.”
PLAINTIFFS’ ALLEGATIONS

24. Plaintiffs are non-profit organizations that engage in public education, lobbying, and pro bono litigation upholding the civil rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution. Collectively, Plaintiffs have more than 500,000 members, including members in every state. Plaintiffs’ employees routinely communicate by phone with each other as well as with journalists, current and potential clients, legislators and legislative staff, and members of the public. These communications relate to Plaintiffs’ advocacy, representation of clients, and efforts to lobby Congress. Plaintiffs’ communications are sensitive and often privileged.
25. For example, Plaintiffs frequently place or receive phone calls from individuals relating to potential legal representation in suits against the federal government or state governments. Often, the mere fact that Plaintiffs have communicated with these individuals is sensitive or privileged.

26. In ongoing litigation, Plaintiffs often communicate with potential witnesses, informants, or sources who regard the fact of their association or affiliation with Plaintiffs as confidential. Particularly in their work relating to national security, access to reproductive services, racial discrimination, the rights of immigrants, and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, Plaintiffs’ work often depends on their ability to keep even the fact of their discussions with certain individuals confidential.
27. Similarly, Plaintiffs often communicate with government and industry whistleblowers, lobbyists, journalists, and possible advocacy partners who consider the confidentiality of their associations with Plaintiffs essential to their work.
28. Plaintiffs ACLU and ACLUF are current customers of Verizon Business Network Services Inc. (“VBNS”) and Verizon Wireless. VBNS provides the ACLU’s and ACLUF’s wired communications, including their landlines and internet connection. Verizon Wireless provides their wireless communications, including their mobile phones.
29. Plaintiff NYCLU was a customer of VBNS until early April 2013. Until that time, VBNS provided the NYCLU’s wired communications, including their landlines.
30. On June 5, 2013, The Guardian published a FISC order directing VBNS to produce to the National Security Agency “on an ongoing daily basis . . . all call detail records or ‘telephony metadata’” of its customers’ calls, including those “wholly within the United States.” Secondary Order at 2, In re Application of the FBI for an Order Requiring the Prod. of Tangible Things from Verizon Bus. Network Servs., Inc. on Behalf of MCI Commc’n Servs., Inc. d/b/a Verizon Bus. Servs., No. BR 13-80 (FISC Apr. 25, 2013), available at http://bit.ly/11FY393. The VBNS order was issued on April 25, 2013 and expires on July 19, 2013. The order was issued ex parte, and there is no procedure for Plaintiffs to challenge it in the FISC.

31. In the few days since The Guardian disclosed the VBNS order, government officials have revealed more about the government’s surveillance under Section 215. On June 6, Defendant Clapper officially acknowledged the authenticity of the VBNS order and disclosed details about the broader program supported by the FISC’s orders issued under Section 215. Among other things, he stated that: “[t]he judicial order that was disclosed in the press is used to support a sensitive intelligence collection operation”; “[t]he only type of information acquired under the Court’s order is telephony metadata, such as telephone numbers dialed and length of calls”; and “[t]he [FISC] reviews the program approximately every 90 days.”
32. The following day, President Barack Obama also commented publicly on the Section 215 order. Like Defendant Clapper, the President acknowledged that the intelligence community is tracking phone numbers and the durations of calls.
33. Members of the congressional intelligence committees have confirmed that the order issued to VBNS was but a single, three-month order in a much broader, seven-year program that the government has relied upon to collect the telephone records of all Americans. Senator Dianne Feinstein has stated that “this is the exact three-month renewal of what has been the case for the past seven years. This renewal is carried out by the [FISC] under the business records section of the Patriot Act.” Senator Saxby Chambliss has likewise stated that “[t]his has been going on for seven years.”
34. News reports since the disclosure of the VBNS order indicate that the mass acquisition of Americans’ call details extends beyond customers of VBNS, encompassing all wireless and landline subscribers of the country’s three largest phone companies. See Siobhan Gorman et al., U.S. Collects Vast Data Trove, Wall St. J., June 7, 2013, http://on.wsj.com/11uD0ue (“The arrangement with Verizon, AT&T and Sprint, the country’s

three largest phone companies means, that every time the majority of Americans makes a call, NSA gets a record of the location, the number called, the time of the call and the length of the conversation, according to people familiar with the matter. . . . AT&T has 107.3 million wireless customers and 31.2 million landline customers. Verizon has 98.9 million wireless customers and
22.2 million landline customers while Sprint has 55 million customers in total.”); Siobhan Gorman & Jennifer Valentino-DeVries, Government Is Tracking Verizon Customers’ Records, Wall St. J., June 6, 2013, http://on.wsj.com/13mLm7c (“The National Security Agency is obtaining a complete set of phone records from all Verizon U.S. customers under a secret court order, according to a published account and former officials.”).
35. As customers of VBNS, Plaintiffs ACLU and ACLUF are covered by the now- public order of the FISC requiring VBNS to turn over all of its customers’ call records— including all of Plaintiffs’ call records—on an ongoing basis. Upon information and belief, Plaintiff NYCLU was covered by a similar order prior to the expiration of their contract with VBNS. Also upon information and belief, Plaintiffs ACLU and ACLUF are covered by a similar order directed to Verizon Wireless. The information collected includes Plaintiffs’ numbers, the numbers of their contacts, the time and duration of every single call they placed or received, and the location of Plaintiffs and their contacts when talking on mobile phones. This information could readily be used to identify those who contact Plaintiffs for legal assistance or to report human-rights or civil-liberties violations, as well as those whom Plaintiffs contact in connection with their work. The fact that the government is collecting this information is likely to have a chilling effect on people who would otherwise contact Plaintiffs.

CAUSES OF ACTION

36. The Mass Call Tracking exceeds the authority granted by 50 U.S.C. § 1861, and thereby violates 5 U.S.C. § 706.
37. The Mass Call Tracking violates the First Amendment to the Constitution.

38. The Mass Call Tracking violates the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution.

PRAYER FOR RELIEF

WHEREFORE the plaintiffs respectfully request that the Court:

1. Exercise jurisdiction over Plaintiffs’ Complaint;

2. Declare that the Mass Call Tracking violates 50 U.S.C. § 1861 and 5 U.S.C.

§ 706;

3. Declare that the Mass Call Tracking violates the First and Fourth Amendments to the Constitution;
4. Permanently enjoin Defendants from continuing the Mass Call Tracking under the VBNS order or any successor thereto;
5. Order Defendants to purge from their possession all of the call records of Plaintiffs’ communications in their possession collected pursuant to the Mass Call Tracking;
6. Award Plaintiff fees and costs pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2412;

7. Grant such other and further relief as the Court deems just and proper.

Respectfully submitted,




Arthur N. Eisenberg (AE-2012) Christopher T. Dunn (CD-3991) New York Civil Liberties Union
Foundation
125 Broad Street, 19th Floor New York, NY 10004 Phone: (212) 607-3300

/s/ Jameel Jaffer Jameel Jaffer (JJ-4653) Alex Abdo (AA-0527)
Brett Max Kaufman (BK-2827)
Patrick Toomey (PT-1452) Catherine Crump (CC-4067) American Civil Liberties Union
Foundation

Fax: (212) 607-3318
aeisenberg@nyclu.org

125 Broad Street, 18th Floor New York, NY 10004 Phone: (212) 549-2500
Fax: (212) 549-2654
jjaffer@aclu.org


June 11, 2013"