Sean Geary Higgins

1/2 @RichardMorrison is a senior fellow at @ceidotorg, host of the @freethe_economy podcast, and a @FreeConTalk signatory. In a recent piece for @NRO, Morrison warned that the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Consolidated Audit Trail, which he described an “Orwellian database of every stock and option transaction,” poses a significant threat to civil liberties protected by the First Amendment. “Investment choices may not be as obviously expressive conduct as writing a newspaper op-ed or protesting in front of a government building,” Morris wrote, but an SEC commissioner has admitted that “economic transactions offer a window into a person’s deepest thoughts and core values” and “are a rich form of value expression.” Moreover, “maintaining a giant database full of information on millions of presumptively innocent Americans” impinges on key Fourth and Fifth Amendment protections and “presents significant cybersecurity problems.” The SEC staff has “now received hundreds of comment letters” to inform a “comprehensive review” of the Consolidated Audit trail,” Morrison explained. “When the staff is done with its analysis, they should do the right thing: Shut down CAT entirely.” #FreeCon