WASHINGTON – The Reform Government Surveillance coalition (RGS) today released a statement applauding the House passage of the NDO Fairness Act for the second year in a row.

“This bipartisan bill, introduced by Congressman Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI) and Congressman Jerry Nadler (D-NY), strengthens the nondisclosure order (NDO) process by ensuring NDOs are issued after meaningful judicial review of the need for secrecy. This bill is a significant step toward improving laws to better protect the constitutional rights of individuals in the digital age.

“For two years in a row, the U.S. House of Representatives has unanimously passed the NDO Fairness Act, demonstrating there is clear bipartisan support for enacting critical legislation that would help ensure individual’s constitutional protections. We encourage the U.S. Senate to pass the NDO Fairness Act and to send the bill to President Biden to be signed into law.”

The NDO Fairness Act provides courts with a meaningful standard to evaluate nondisclosure requests by law enforcement who seek access to an individual’s emails, photos, location information or other sensitive information. Furthermore, the NDO Fairness Act would help ensure the government is not imposing overly broad and indefinite NDOs, which are inconsistent with U.S. standards for pursuing court-ordered physical searches.

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