Self-determination through the franchise is fundamental right for which this nation was founded. In our constant struggle to live up to our founding creed, Americans fought, and bled, and died for it on distant battlefields and American streets. We would dishonor their sacrifices if we did not protect the right for which many gave their lives.
Matt is fighting to protect and expand voting rights.
Pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act
Restoration and modernization of preclearance
Prohibition of partisan gerrymandering
Transparency with 180 day notifications for changes to voting laws and procedures like polling site closures
Improve polling location accessibility for voters with disabilities
Expand early voting
Same day and automatic voter registration
Establish standards to combat voter suppression tactics
Set minimum standards for national mail-in voting, early voting periods, federal standards for adequate number of polling sites and location accessibility
Restoration of voting rights for the formerly incarcerated
This administration and their Republican lackeys in Congress greatly increased the budget for immigration and deportation measures to $170 billion. It makes immigration enforcement the largest paramilitary force in the country. The budget surpasses all annual law enforcement expenditures on police by state and local governments. Deportation operations under ICE saw a three-fold increase in its annual budget. $30 billion over four years to hire 10,000 new agents.
DHS and ICE recruitment propaganda are overtly white supremacist. The standards and training for new ICE agents are abysmal. The process, by which corners are cut, was described as a “shit show.” The results are predictable.
Masked ICE agents without name badges are documented to have:
Murdered a woman in her car in Minnesota
Unlawfully detained U.S. citizens without proper due process
Unlawfully detained legal immigrants without proper due process
Misidentified individuals with benign NIKE or autism tattoos as signifiers for MS-13 gang membership and deported them to a foreign torture gulag
Drawn firearms on peaceful protesters
Fired “non-lethal” projectiles at peaceful protesters including in the head
Violently assault U.S. citizens and immigrants on the streets and within government buildings
Despite its claims to deport “the worst of the worst,” data leaked in October 2025 showed only 5 percent of those detained by ICE held violent convictions. 73 percent had no convictions at all.
Matt will fight for the abolition of ICE and prosecution of human rights violators. Under this administration, supercharged by the Republican Congress with massive increase to its budget, ICE is a flagrant human rights violator. It regularly violates the constitutional rights of U.S. citizens and immigrants of every status. ICE agents hide their identities in an attempt to escape accountability.
ICE must be abolished and its functions drawn-and-quartered into separate agencies. We must clean house. Everybody involved in this national disgrace must understand that the present circumstances are not going to last forever. There will be a day of reckoning and it is coming.
America’s democracy is in peril. We are living through a persistent, rolling constitution crisis. This president exposed cracks in our democracy and government. An administration that is the largest existential crisis our nation faced since the Confederacy. They must be held accountable for the laws they break and the lives they upend.
In our pursuit of justice and accountability, however, we cannot lose sight of the future. We must also concern ourselves with those cracks he exploited. They did not form overnight. Nor will they vanish with Trump. The fascist movement he built will outlast him. We as Americans must commit ourselves to a long-term program of constitutional reform.
Matt will fight for historic constitutional reforms to strengthen our democracy and the rule of law. Congressional statute can only get us so far. We must also undertake the arduous task of laying the groundwork for a constitutional amendment or series of constitutional amendments as corrective.
We can make our democracy more responsive and resilient. We owe it to future generations.
By congressional statute
Voting rights, elections, and representation
Pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act
Restoration of voting rights for the formerly incarcerated
Outlaw partisan gerrymandering
Expand the House of Representatives from fixed 435 seats set in the Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929 and guarantee proportional representation
Campaign finance reform
Statehood for the District of Columbia
Resolve Puerto Rico’s status
Assume all Puerto Rican debt, regardless of resolution
Institutional safeguards
Clarify Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to establish a national procedure for the disqualification of federal candidates in response to Trump v. Anderson
Define and clarify the Emoluments Clause in Article I, Section 9 of the U.S. Constitution to require disclosure, divestment, and require enforcement
Codify the independence of the Department of Justice, federal agencies
Establish procedures and independent enforcement to penalize the Executive for failure to comply with a court order
Strengthen protections for inspectors general and whistleblowers
The growth of online gambling, cryptocurrencies, and prediction markets created a broader economic engine of extraction. These are systems which lure unsuspecting users and operate within a regulation purgatory. Scam artists—including prominent figures including the president and his family—prey upon these vulnerable users.
Gambling addiction spikes
In 2018, the Supreme Court struck down a federal ban on single-game wagers in Murphy v. NCAA. The major sports leagues embraced the gambling industry as a new source of revenue. It’s already led to a spate of scandals involving players and coaches placing wagers on their sport including their own games.
Gambling apps provide always-on access and accelerate problematic gambling behavior. The 24/7 mobile access led to increased debt. A survey in 2025 revealed 51 percent of users are $500 or more in debt from wagers. One in four reported missed bill payments because of their wagers.
Parlays, which require success on multiple legs of a wager, have low win probabilities. Yet sports bettors continue to bet parlays at astounding rates.
Cryptocurrencies and the rug pull
Crypto was created as an alternative to traditional banking and outside government control. The decentralized nature drew the interest of black hat hackers, rogue nations, and criminal enterprises such as drug cartels.
It’s drawn the interest of one particular criminal family: the Trumps. On the eve of his inauguration, the president-elect launched a memecoin—a highly volatile cryptocurrency inspired by internet memes or cultural fads with little to no actual real world value. Their popularity attracts criminals who seek pump-and-dump schemes to swindle users. This is called a “rug pull.”
The $TRUMP memecoin was no different. It quickly rose in value, peaking at $14.5 billion with $100 million in trading fees within two days. Trump secured an 80 percent stake. One of the entities behind the memecoin is owned by Trump. Then came the rug pull. 58 wallets made $10 million each on the $TRUMP memecoin with $1.1 billion in profits. 764,000 wallets lost money.
The $MELANIA memecoin was released the day before the inauguration. The price spiked—selling $15 million in tokens—before it its developers withdrew $1 million and it collapsed to 10 percent of its peak price.
Meanwhile, Trump held a significant ownership stake in the cryptocurrency venture World Liberty Financial along with the family of his special envoy Steve Witkoff. In early 2026, a UAE-linked firm bought a 49 percent stake. WLF generated $1.4 billion in 16 months.
Prediction market manipulation and immoral wagers
The history of prediction markets go back decades but the fusion with self-serve internet-based trading. There are a number of brazen problems.
Prediction markets such as Kalshi and Polymarket are prone to engagement bait. These companies, deeply enmeshed in realm of sports betting which generates most of their revenue, seek to generate news, not just bet on it.
These markets are also ripe for manipulation. This is a particularly acute threat with MAGA loyalists within the administration engaged insider trading with wagers on prediction markets on actions undertaken by the federal government:
The $436,000 payout for a wager on the capture of Venezuela leader Nicholas Maduro hours before the raid which whisked the South American leader to the U.S. Roughly a half dozen accounts on Polymarket secured $1.2 million in wagers on Iran strikes through accounts funded on a suspicious timeline.
A $553,000 payout for a wager on the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the joint U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran.
Prediction markets introduced war profiteering for the 21st century as bettors wager and win millions on recent U.S. military conflicts.
Matt is fighting to protect Americans from the rig economy. These markets, in total, constitute the emergence of a rig economy. Financial instruments which generate profit for a select few through the fleecing of unsuspecting users.
This is the most corrupt administration in American history. Criminal acts are carried out in the open near daily. We are a nation of laws. The rule of law must be protected and upheld.
Matt will fight for impeachment. Accountability for this administration and its actions must be relentless. Its crimes must be made plain for the American people. A judgment by the Congress must be registered with history. We must act in accordance with the demands this emergency requires.
Impeachment of Donald Trump
Donald Trump must be impeached for an unprecedented third time. These offenses include but are not limited to:
The unlawful dismantling of federal agencies and departments established by congressional statute including the Department of Education and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
For the uncontrolled spread of preventable diseases which resulted in the loss of life:
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
For obstruction of justice in failure to comply with the release of the Epstein files:
Attorney General Pam Bondi
For the illegal firing of tens of thousands of federal civil service employees and the unlawful dismantling of federal agencies and departments established by congressional statute.
Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought
The nation’s current system of campaign finance is one of legal bribery.
Our elections are awash in money from wealthy and corporate interests. Since the Supreme Court ruled on Citizens United in 2010, outside spending in elections ballooned 28x between 2008 and 2024. In 2024, Elon Musk alone spent more than $290 million to put Donald Trump back into the White House. Trump solicited $1 billion from the oil and gas industry.
What did it get them? Musk was placed in control of an unconstitutional destruction of federal agencies which confronted Musk’s businesses. Fossil fuels were propped up by federal support and received rollbacks of regulation of their industries. These rollbacks include the reversal of the foundation on which all climate regulation is built.
Representative democracy is endangered under these conditions. Government policy is dictated by and for powerful interests—not the national interest. That’s oligarchy.
Matt is fighting for campaign finance reform. Wealthy and corporate interests wield far too much power, shutting out the voices of the American people. We must get money out of politics.
Pass a constitutional amendment to reverse Citizens United
Prohibit super PACs
Limit campaign spending to political candidates and parties
Close the loophole in federal law which allows for foreign corporate influence in U.S. elections
Prohibit political appointments of campaign contributors
Prohibit private sources of funding for inaugural committees
Ban on private fundraising for presidential libraries until two years after leaving office
Transition toward public financing of elections with small dollar matching system in federal elections
Immigration is good. Immigration strengthens us. It’s part of the American cultural and social fabric woven by peoples from all over the world.
Most Americans today are descendants of immigrants who arrived after our nation’s founding. Yet under the direction of Stephen Miller, our nation betrays its immigrant tradition.
The immigration system is woefully underfunded and poorly resourced. The current backlog of cases stands at 3.3 million. Immigration judges face massive caseloads. Persons from high-demand countries potentially facing decades waiting. Yet the Trump administration fired nearly 100 immigration judges in 2025.
Matt is fighting for comprehensive immigration reform that honors our immigrant tradition and includes a pathway to citizenship. Matt’s maternal ancestors were Irish and Italian, arriving in the mid-18th century and just after the turn of the century, respectively. One of his most prized possessions is the Handbook for Americans his great-grandmother Antonietta received upon earning her citizenship after the war.
His wife is the daughter of Ethiopian refugees who fled the Communist Derg government and ultimately became U.S. citizens.
Pass comprehensive immigration reform
Legal residency, naturalization, and citizenship
Establish deportation protections to persons previously granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS)
Legal provisional status on a pathway to citizenship with required benchmarks
Expedited process for DREAMers, military servicemembers and veterans
Provide dedicated funding—not fee-based—for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)
Streamline naturalization process
Funding for English language learning and civic integration programs
Reform detentions
Close the network of concentration camps
Prohibit use of private prisons
Reform asylum system
Conform to international law
Increase resources for asylum claim processing and adjudication
Expand protections for trafficking victims and unaccompanied minors
Reform immigration courts
Expand immigration court system
Establish independence from the Department of Justice
Hire more immigration judges
Set benchmarks to reduce case backlog
Streamline appeals process
Require legal representation for unaccompanied minors
Reform visas and green cards
Create new visa categories
Visa portability for workers to change jobs
Elimination of per-country caps on green cards
Reform interior enforcement
Abolish ICE and prosecute top officials and field agents for human rights violations
Severely limit 287(g) cooperation agreements between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities
Discard Trump-era immigration actions by congressional statute
Discontinue any formal agreement negotiated between the U.S. and El Salvador on the use of the CECOT facility
End Title 42
Reverse Trump executive order which effectively suspended the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP)
Reboot the CBP One app for appointment scheduling
Halt the administration’s overzealous denaturalization efforts
For the first time in U.S. history, defense spending crossed $1 trillion annually at the behest of Donald Trump. The Pentagon accounts for nearly half of all discretionary spending and responsible for nearly 40 percent of all worldwide military expenditures in 2024. The current U.S. defense budget is larger than the next nine biggest spenders.
Still, it is not enough for Donald Trump. In April, he requested an additional $500 billion annually for a $1.5 trillion Pentagon budget. An absurd 44 percent increase.
This massive increase in defense spending comes at a tremendous cost to the American public. Trump proposed the elimination of all heating assistance, efforts to increase affordable housing, and sexual risk avoidance and teen pregnancy programs.
We’re fighting wars. … It’s not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare—all these individual things.
Donald Trump April 1, 2026
Matt is fighting for the defense of Americans’ economic future over runaway Pentagon spending. Americans are often told the nation is broke. We cannot afford to provide health care, food and energy assistance, or housing, they say. It’s bullshit. We are not broke. It’s our priorities that are poor.
Rollback Trump-era expansion of U.S. defense spending
Cut wasteful or outdated programs
F-35 fighter
Trump-era initiatives
Golden Dome missile defense with estimated $185 billion cost
Golden Fleet ship construction with Trump-class battleships at $65.8 billion
F-47 fighter with a $20 billion contract
Require regular audits of the Pentagon
Close the revolving door between the Pentagon and defense contractors
Invest in health care, education, and housing for veterans
A 2024 study of nations with similar economics and political systems found that between 2000 and 2022, the U.S. accounted for 76 percent of mass shooting incidents and 70 percent of all fatalities with only 33 percent of the combined population. In that same period only four other countries—Canada, Finland, France, and Germany—had more than two incidents compared to 109 in the States. The U.S. tops the list of firearm homicide rates among 65 high-income countries with populations over 10 million. Guns outpace car accidents as the leading cause of death for U.S. children.
What sets the U.S. apart from all other nations?
A weak social safety net
Data from 2019 and 2020 showed counties with the highest levels of poverty saw a higher increase in firearm homicides compared to counties with the lowest poverty levels.
A 2025 study found an increase in the lack of affordable rental homes for low-income people was associated with higher firearm homicide rates.
Mental health is favored deflection by gun rights activists despite the fact that most people with mental health issues are not violent. The lack of investment in mental health care services and barriers to access, however, are a failing of our economic and health care systems. More than half of all U.S. counties have no practicing psychiatrists.
It’s the guns
The gun lobby claims “guns make us safer.” The truth is actually the opposite. More guns means more gun violence. A 2004 Harvard study found that gun availability increases risks of homicide in high-income countries. Estimates from the World Bank placed U.S. gun ownership at 45 percent of all civilian-owned firearms globally with only 5 percent of the population. A 2024 analysis found the U.S. has more than three times the civilian gun ownership than Canada. A recent report found there are likely over 500 million privately-owned firearms with at least 46 percent of American households with at least one firearm.
How are there so many guns in circulation?
Gun manufacturers saw a spike in production since 2019 in comparison from previous decades with 70 million firearm purchases—13 million more than the 2000s and 17 million more than the 1990s. Once a firearm is manufactured and sold, it stays in circulation for extended periods of time with a minimal estimated attrition rate of just 1 percent. The problem is not just legal guns, either. The use of ghost guns grew 1,000 percent since 2017, according to the Department of Justice. Studies of guns recovered from crimes in several major cities found that 87 percent of firearms used to commit crimes were trafficked from other states with weaker gun laws. It is a detail that underscores the need for federal action.
Research shows weaker gun laws contribute to higher rates of gun violence with a 19 percent increase in gun deaths since 1990. States with strengthened gun laws consistently saw declines in firearm-related death rates by 36 percent.
The expansion of open and permitless carry and stand your ground laws create an environment where situations can turn deadly within seconds.
Assault weapons ban expired in 2004
Under the Assault Weapons Ban, the risk of dying in a mass shooting was 70 percent lower.
Since its expiration in September 2004, mass shootings with six or more deaths increased by 347 percent and fatalities up 239 percent. If the ban were not left to expire, it may have prevented 314 of the 448 mass shooting deaths.
Mass shootings
The wide availability of guns, particularly weapons with large magazines, drive the mass shooting epidemic in the U.S. Mass shootings occur dramatically more frequently in the U.S. compared to other developed nations. It is a pattern that is unique to the United States.
Matt is fighting for reforms to reduce gun violence. It is clear the myriad of factors driving gun violence in the U.S. Matt is fighting for a future we can afford to lift families out of poverty, build millions of affordable homes, and expand access to mental health care. But that’s only part of the battle. The nation must confront the gun crisis to save lives.
Pass the Assault Weapons Ban
Require universal background checks
Allow for the temporary removal of firearms of at-risk individuals under red flag laws
Repeal roadblocks to gun tracing data
Rescind gun manufacturer liability shield
Incentivize the adoption of authorized-use technology
Combat the spread of 3D-printed guns through the 3D-Printed Gun Safety Act
Strengthen laws on gun dealership operations on record-keeping, training, store security
The major sports leagues in the United States are multi-billion dollar enterprises. The value of individual teams jumped up 18 percent between 2024 and 2025 with the average NFL team worth $7.6 billion last year.
Yet franchise owners continue to turn to taxpayers to fund their cathedrals. Decades of research shows publicly-financed stadiums do not deliver on their economic promises to boost local economies. Yet it has not stopped local and state governments from doling out hundreds of millions, even billions, in taxpayer money.
The federal government must step in to ensure taxpayers are protected.
The $120 million expansion of the Oakland Coliseum to lure the Raiders back from Los Angeles in 1995 looms heavily in the Bay Area. It was funded with $200 million in public debt ($350 million with interest) to build the Mt. Davis eyesore which blocked the once beautiful view of the Oakland hills. The final debt payment was made in February 2026. Nine years after the Raiders announced relocation to Las Vegas with $750 million in public money from Nevada.
Billionaire team owners socialize the costs and privatize the profit.
Matt is fighting to protect taxpayers and fanbases from billionaire team owners preying upon communities. Until recently, Matt was a lifelong fan of the Oakland Athletics and spent over two years organizing with community fan groups seeking to prevent the team’s relocation to Las Vegas. A’s fans endured over thirty years of the prospect of relocation hanging over a franchise that frequently outperformed a team payroll often near the bottom of the league.
It was a fight about more than just sports. Venues like the Coliseum represented one of the few remaining collective experiences that built a sense of community across race, income, gender, profession, and even politics.
When the A’s left the Coliseum, it constituted a loss of roughly 600 East Bay working class jobs. Workers who were left without severance or health care.
After 56 years, our community deserved better from Major League Baseball and cheapskate billionaire team owner John Fisher. Here’s how Matt would fight to protect other communities from the same experience:
Minimum requirements for public financing over $100 million
Require non-voting ownership stake for public funds
Proportional to public investment but capped to prevent controlling interest
Mandatory buyout at fair market value upon team relocation
Prohibit franchises as exclusive recipient of proceeds for naming rights, concessions, and parking fees from publicly-funded stadiums
Require franchise seeking public funds to open its books to validate the state of the team finances and profitability
Mandatory independent economic analysis by federally designated independent body
Federal minimum standards
Minimum notice period prior to relocation
Right of first refusal
Empower Federal Trade Commission authority on deceptive practices under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act
Community Benefit Agreement enforcement
Develop framework for federal-state compact to prevent bidding wars between markets
Direct the Government Accountability Office to conduct monitoring of projected versus actual economic outcomes, tax revenues for public disclosure
Target the use of tax-exempt municipal bonds for stadium construction
Antitrust exemption reform
MLB—amend the Curt Flood Act
NFL—amend the Sports Broadcasting Act
NBA/NHL—create a new conditional exemption
Phased in avoid legal issues regarding retroactive takings arguments with current stadium projects
This administration is the most corrupt in American history.
Past presidencies were marked by scandals which remained in the public memory. Watergate. Iran-Contra. Teapot Dome. Crédit Mobilier. The deluge of criminality of this regime since January 20, 2025 is staggering in speed and breadth. Unconstitutional assumption of powers. Violations of the domestic and international law. Human rights abuses inflicted upon people regardless of citizenship or legal status. The truth is we may not know the full extent.
When this political project of theirs collapses—and it will, one way or another—we know from recent history that the overwhelming desire from elite quarters will be to move on. It’s in the past, they will say. We’re looking forward.
Not this time.
Matt is fighting government abuse and corruption to hold those responsible accountable—including prosecutions. If we do not hold these criminals accountable, we will find ourselves in this same situation again only it will be our children who will have to fight it. We must learn the lesson of January 6. No one escapes on the ratlines to lucrative speaking fees only to return later. There must be a reckoning.
Impeachment of Donald Trump and members of his cabinet
House investigations of Trump-era corruption, abuses of power
House Select Committee (i.e., Church Committee-style) to determine a full accounting of the activities of Elon Musk’s DOGE
Issue criminal referrals for violations of state and federal law
Partner with relevant state authorities
Issue criminal referrals to DOJ under a new Democratic president
Federal prosecutions of Trump administration officials and aides who were part of the machinery which led to violations of federal and international law, human rights violations, and abuses against peoples’ civil rights
Over 700,000 people live within the District of Columbia—a population larger than Vermont (644,000) and Wyoming (588,000) but without the representation on Capitol Hill. Residents of Vermont and Wyoming have a voting member in the U.S. House of Representatives and two U.S. senators. Yet D.C. residents do not.
It’s taxation without representation. A clarion call that helped spark the American revolution. It is long past time to ensure residents of the District of Columbia receive full representation in Congress.
Matt is fighting for D.C. statehood. As a former resident of D.C. for over a decade, Matt knows taxation without representation first-hand. It’s unfair to the city’s residents who pay federal taxes like everyone else.
Puerto Rico is a U.S. colonial possession and territory since the war with Spain in 1898. Its people enjoy American citizenship but lack true representation within its relationship to the federal government.
It lacks sovereignty with plenary power over the territory held by Congress by the Territorial Clause of the Constitution. Puerto Ricans cannot vote for president with a single non-voting representative in Congress for 3 million U.S. citizens—more than Arkansas, Kansas, Mississippi, and many other states and territories. Governance is imposed on the island through the PROMESA oversight board with ultimate control over its budget and finances and appointed by Washington.
We must take this opportunity for sweeping democratic reforms to include an equitable settlement of Puerto Rico’s status.
Matt is fighting to correct a historical wrong and push for an equitable settlement of Puerto Rico’s political status with the United States. Congress must set a federally-sponsored, binding referendum for Puerto Rico to choose its path forward with statehood, independence, or autonomous free association.
Legislation must include a gesture of friendship and justice with federal funding to rebuild and repair the island’s electrical grid and the assumption of Puerto Rico’s outstanding debt by the federal government. In the wake of the Revolution, the federal government assumed the war debts of the original thirteen colonies and established a national line of credit. This courtesy must be extended to the Puerto Rican people, regardless of the outcome of a plebiscite.
Congressional authorization for a binding referendum of the Puerto Rican people to determine the island’s status
Selection between statehood, full independence as a sovereign nation, or free association with the U.S.
Assumption of all remaining Puerto Rican debt by the federal government
Increase federal funding for, and resolve the delayed disbursement of, federal funding for repairs to the island’s electrical grid
Properly fund FEMA operations to adequately review energy projects and provide technical support to PREPA
Streamline the review process to speed up approvals
The Supreme Court of the United States is corrupt. The breakdown of the Court into right-wing partisanship began in earnest a quarter-century ago with the Bush v. Gore decision. It was a watershed moment for the Court and the country for which we still have yet to recover. The problem exacerbated with the theft of two Supreme Court seats to entrench a 6-3 conservative majority.
Uncorrupt the court
Several disturbing reports revealed serious corruption. Clarence Thomas, the most notable example, accepted luxury travel and other gifts from a billionaire with business interests before the Court. Neil Gorsuch, days before his confirmation to the Court, managed to offload a property—which he unable to sell for roughly two years—for $1.825 million. The Court instituted a voluntary code of conduct—and it is woefully inadequate.
It is capture of the Court by the wealthy and powerful. It must end.
Modernize the Court
In 1789, the Court was established with six justices and later reduced and expanded between five and ten justices over the next 80 years. It was set at nine justices in 1869. It often shifted to maintain parallel with the number of federal circuits which currently stand at thirteen.
Matt will fight for Supreme Court reform. Public perception of the Court continues to nosedive. It is made worse every time the Court abuses the shadow docket, overrules long-held precedent, and contorts to carry out bidding of this administration. He believes we need to:
Expand the Court to institute membership rotation for each Court term
Tie the number of active seats to federal circuits (13)
Establish an enforceable code of conduct by which justices are required to abide
Prohibit supplemental income while serving
Guidelines by which justices are required to recuse
Acts by the justices in which impeachment must be considered
Greater transparency within the Court
Allow cameras in the courtroom for oral arguments
Court disclosure of public appearances by justices
The nation’s sprawling surveillance state through the Cold War and the post-9/11 era was always of great concern. Programs like the CIA’s HTLINGUAL mail intercept program photographed millions of letters for over twenty years during the Cold War. In response to September 11, Congress passed the PATRIOT Act and the following year, George W. Bush issued an executive order on warrantless surveillance by the NSA.
Palantir
The federal government’s relationship with data surveillance firms like Palantir, co-founded by major donor Peter Thiel, grew immensely with Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Palantir’s federal contracts amount to nearly $14 billion. They are leading efforts to amalgamate data sources from across the federal government. The concentration of tax, Social Security, and health data from across agencies creates an unprecedented surveillance power for the Executive Branch. A 2025 report noted the administration sought access to bank account numbers, student loan debt balances, medical claims, and disability status. The administration refuses to release documents about such data sharing.
ICE as a testing ground
ICE is one of the largest customers of Clearview AI, a facial recognition firm which reportedly scraped over 30 billion faces from internet sources. Paragon holds a $2 million contract with ICE for use of its Graphite spyware designed to infiltrate devices.
Matt is fighting to purge Palantir and other data surveillance tech from the federal government. He signed the Purge Palantir pledge to refuse their money and commit to excising firms like Palantir from the federal government. Matt believes we must act as soon as possible before these powerful tools become exceptionally difficult to dismantle.
Modernize the Privacy Act of 1974 to protect Americans from the loopholes of a fifty year old law
Prohibit a unified data query layer of Americans’ sensitive data
Direct inspectors general to audit existing contracts
Pursue contract cancellations on a budgetary basis or by congressional statute
Strengthen whistleblower protections and encourage reporting civil liberties violations
Congressional investigation of abuses and pursue prosecutions for violations of federal law
Roots of the militarization of local police departments extend back to the 1997 National Defense Authorization Act and the creation of the 1033 Program, or Law Enforcement Support Office (LESO) Program. It authorized the Department of Defense to transfer excess military equipment, vehicles, and other supplies to federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies. Following the attacks of September 11, 2001 and the expansion of the Global War on Terror, these transfers intensified over terrorism fears. Manufacturers also began marketing military-grade equipment directly to local police departments. Training programs for police departments increasingly adopted a “warrior” ethos and combat tactics.
Matt is fighting to demilitarize the police. The forever war is over but its impacts are still felt in communities around the country. It is time to end the forever war at home, too.
End the 1033 Program which transfers military surplus equipment to police departments at no cost
Reclaim the controlled equipment still under ownership of the Department of Defense, like vehicles, and redeploy them to our ally in Kyiv for the defense of Ukraine
Place restrictions on federal grant programs which fund equipment purchases
Condition federal funding contingent on local police demilitarization efforts
Provide federal funding for community policing models which show positive results over militarization
Additional transparency requirements for the acquisition and tracking of equipment transfers
