1. United States
2. N.C.
3. Letter

I am writing to urge you to take immediate action against the Department of Homeland Security's use of administrative subpoenas to obtain user information from tech companies without judicial oversight. According to recent reporting by the New York Times, DHS has sent hundreds of administrative subpoenas to Reddit, Meta, Google, and Discord over the past few months, demanding identifying information about users who posted content critical of Immigration and Customs Enforcement or shared locations of ICE agents. This represents a dangerous escalation in government surveillance tactics. These administrative subpoenas come directly from DHS itself rather than from a judge, bypassing the judicial review that protects our constitutional rights. Previously, such administrative subpoenas were reserved for urgent situations like child abductions, not for identifying critics of government agencies. The companies receiving these demands have voluntarily complied with at least some requests. While Google and some other companies claim they notify users and provide a 14-day window to fight the subpoena in court, this places an unreasonable burden on individuals to defend their First Amendment rights against federal agencies. The chilling effect on free speech is profound when Americans must fear government retaliation for criticizing law enforcement agencies. This practice undermines the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. When government agencies can obtain private information without demonstrating probable cause to a neutral magistrate, we lose a critical check on executive power. The judicial warrant process exists precisely to prevent this kind of overreach. I urge you to introduce or support legislation that would prohibit federal agencies from using administrative subpoenas to obtain user information from tech companies without a court-issued warrant based on probable cause. Americans should not have to choose between exercising their First Amendment rights and protecting their privacy from warrantless government surveillance.