We're having a "Cypherpunks Dress-Up Day" on Friday, October 20th. Meet at the Federal Building in San Francisco, 450 Golden Gate Avenue, at 10:15AM. Hey, I've seen Tim May in a suit once, why not again? The first "oral arguments" in the Bernstein crypto export case will happen there, starting at 10:30, in Judge Patel's courtroom upstairs. We've been fedexing legalese back and forth for months; now we get to explain the case in person. You can meet our intrepid lawyers, who are slaving away without pay, in durance vile, to protect our rights! Shake hands with an NSA lawyer specially flown in for the occasion! Meet some local journalists! And watch the wheels of justice grindin' as the judge first explores our case. We will follow the hearing with a group lunch at Max's Opera Plaza, a block away, and break up at 12:30 or 1PM. In this case, Dan Bernstein, ex-grad-student from UC Berkeley, is suing the State Department, NSA, and other agencies, with help from the EFF. Our main argument is that the export controls on crypto software are a "prior restraint on publication" which is unconstitutional under the First Amendment unless handled very delicately by a court (not just by an agency acting on its own). These agencies restrained Dan's ability to publish a paper, as well as source code, for the crypto algorithm that he invented. There are additional arguments along the lines that the State Department and NSA take a lot more liberties during the export process than their own regulations and laws really permit. Full background and details on the case are in the EFF Web/FTP archives at: http://www.eff.org/pub/Privacy/ITAR_export/Bernstein_case. Like Phil Karn's case, this lawsuit really has the potential to outlaw the whole NSA crypto export scam. We could make your right to publish and export crypto software as well-protected by the courts as your right to publish and export books. Of course, the government would appeal any such decision, and it will take years and probably an eventual Supreme Court decision to make it stick. But you can be there at the very beginning! Please make a positive impression on the judge. Show her -- by showing up -- that this case matters to more people than just the plaintiff and defendant. That how it gets decided will make a difference to society. That the public and the press are watching, and really do care that it gets handled well. We'll have to be quiet and orderly while we're in the courthouse. There will be no questions from the audience (that's us), but the session will be tape-recorded, and you can take notes if you like. The judge is Marilyn Hall Patel, who used to be on the board of directors of the ACLU. I haven't met her, but I hear that she's not afraid to tell the government where to stuff it, when they deserve it. Our lawyers met with her once before, but this will be your first chance to meet the judge in person. The particular issue in front of the judge on the 20th is whether the case should be thrown out. The government is arguing that it should. It's a mess of legal details about whether the Judicial Branch has the right to decide questions like this, and over whether we have really properly claimed a Constitutional rights violation. It will teach most c'punks something about how the courts work, and how the NSA and State Dept use bureaucratic tricks to avoid facing the real issues. We have managed to drag in some of these issues, like whether there is sufficient "expression" in software that the First Amendment should protect publishers of software. It's possible, but unlikely, that the judge will decide then-and-there. We will get some clues to how she is leaning, based on her questions and comments. Her written decision will come out some days or weeks later. Don't bring any interesting devices unless you're willing to check them with the lobby guards for the duration. They seem to want to hold onto guns, "munitions", and even small pocketknives, before they'll let you go upstairs to the courtrooms. So, here's your excuse to put on a nice costume, take an early lunch, and pay a call on the inner sanctum of our civil rights. See you there! John Gilmore