ACLU sues Colorado and FBI authorities for spying on activists’ devices
DENVER, Colorado – The Colorado branch of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a lawsuit against authorities for spying on the private communications of a local activist.
The lawsuit is against the City of Colorado Springs, four members of the Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
The lawsuit identifies the activist as Jacqueline Armendariz Unzueta, who was arrested in 2021 on minor misdemeanor charges during a demonstration for housing rights.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Colorado, alleges that CSPD has targeted activists in the area for several years.
It has used tactics such as infiltration, surveillance, and dragnet searches to seize personal devices and digital data without justification.
The Chinook Center organized a march for residents’ rights in July 2021, in which Armendariz Unzueta participated.
CSPD reportedly arrested the leaders during the march.
Unzueta’s equipment was confiscated and searched by CSPD.
The lawsuit also alleges that FBI officials from the Rocky Mountain Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory unlawfully seized, searched, and copied Armendariz Unzueta’s devices.
ACLU of Colorado Legal Director Tim Macdonald points out that such practices were recognized as dangerous and unconstitutional even during colonial times.
“Over the last several years, CSPD has engaged in a concerted campaign against activists in the region, abusing its powers to target them through infiltration, surveillance, and dragnet warrants to search and seize their personal devices and digital data without justification,” the complaint states.
According to the lawsuit, “CSPD targeted Chinook Center leaders for arrest at the march, sharing pictures of the activists in advance and stating that they would get a ‘boot to the head.'”
CSPD’s justification for the seizure and search of Armendariz Unzueta’s devices is based on the fact that she was arrested for marching in the street and allegedly dropping her bicycle in the path of an officer during the march, “even though the officer easily avoided the bicycle and was not injured in any way,” according to the suit.
The arrest, police said, gave them the right to search activists’ devices because protesters used them to share photos and messages.
The FBI is named in the lawsuit because, according to the filing, agents at its Rocky Mountain Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory illegally seized, searched, and copied Armendariz Unzueta’s personal devices.
ACLU of Colorado legal director Tim Macdonald said that “our Constitution recognized the profound danger that these types of warrants would have on freedom and liberty and precluded them. Indeed, these types of general warrants were common in the time of King George and helped lead to the American Revolution.”
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