1. United States
2. Maine
3. Letter

I am writing to you about the erosion of our rights to freedom of speech and belief. These rights are enshrined in the constitution but the Trump administration is chipping away at them in damaging incremental steps. I quote from a letter circulated by Richard Gephardt and Tim Wirth: "On September 25, 2025, President [Trump] signed a directive called a National Presidential Security Memorandum known as NPSM-7 (titled 'Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence'). Its language designates as targets of federal counterterrorism authorities Americans whose sponsors are labeled "anti-American", " anti-capitalist", "anti-Christian" or "hostile to traditional American views on family, religion and morality." No statute authorizes the federal government to treat protected political speech as terrorism; NPSM-7 does it anyway. It tasked the FBI, the IRS and the Treasury Department with tracking the funding sources and supporters of organizations suspected of directly or indirectly facilitating political unrest, with no reference to the First Amendment. Soon thereafter, the FBI organized a Joint Mission Center, drawing hundreds of personnel from ten federal agencies to identify and prosecute the targets of NPSM-7. The Director of the FBI, Kash Patel, subsequently testified [that there was] a 300 percent increase in domestic terrorism investigations. Former Attorney General Pam Bondi testified that thousands of U.S. citizens and non-governmental organizations are now on a secret watch list tied to the Joint MissionCenter. Concurrently the Justice Department has opened grand-jury investigations and indictments aimed at officials of previous administrations including former CIA Director John Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey. The President's Deputy Chief of Staff, Stephen Miller, has publicly described political opposition as a "fifth column," and Trump himself amplified this by declaring "Arrest them all. Prosecute them all. Incarcerate them all... But first, Barack Obama." On May 6, 2026, the administration's Senior Director for Counterterrorism, Sebastian Gorka, released a new National Counterterrorism Strategy that names "violent left-wing extremists," "anti-fascists," and certain religious minorities as principal threats to the United States." It was established by bipartisan research for many years that radical right wing extremists were the greatest domestic threat. That data point was corroborated by violence like the January 6th armed insurrection and most mass shooting incidents. Labelling critics and political opponents as terrorists comes straight of authoritarian nightmares and fascist regimes. Please investigate, hold hearings and legislate to counter NPSM 7 and uphold the first amendment that you swore to defend