People

Restore The Fourth is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit corporation, dedicated to restoring the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and ending unconstitutional mass government surveillance. We welcome people of all peaceful political beliefs.

We were founded in 2013, in response to the Snowden revelations of NSA mass surveillance. Starting on Reddit, people in almost a hundred cities mobilized for rallies using the slogan “Restore The Fourth,” starting on July 4 and continuing to the “Stop Watching Us” protests of October 2013. Our national chairs during this period were Anna Wilmesher (Jun-Aug 2013) and Ben Doernberg (Sep 2013-Feb 2014). We are now a network of autonomous chapters which engage in legislative advocacy, amicus litigation and organizing around privacy, surveillance and Fourth Amendment issues. 

Annual elections, open to all active Restore The Fourth chapters, occur every May 4. Any member in good standing of Restore The Fourth may stand for election as an officer (unless you previously served on the Board, and were permanently suspended from it). For further and more precise guidelines on running for the Board, please consult our Bylaws. To become a member, please donate here.

Our Board of Directors currently consists of:

Our Litigation Working Group chair is Mahesha Subbaraman, based in Minneapolis.

Our Program and Communications Director is Stephen Perez, based in New York. 

Board Bios

Alex Marthews (National Chair)

Alex is a US-UK dual citizen and a father of four, living in Massachusetts. He has served as Chair since 2014, and was awarded Fight for the Future’s “Nyan Cat Medal of Internet Awesomeness” in 2017. Alex holds a master’s degree in public policy from UC Berkeley, where he helped to design their first course on Cyberlaw and researched discrimination in online blocking and filtering systems.

In his prior career, he was the executive director of nonprofits in the fields of historic preservation, poverty, and girls’ education in East Africa.

Alex’s Twitter LinkedIn Publications

Ed Quiggle (Secretary)

Ed is a freelance journalist and a retired Pennsylvania State Constable who spoke out against the 4th amendment violations of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and the USA PATRIOT Act. He has served as the state coordinator for PANDA (People Against the NDAA) and as an advisor to the Solutions Institute, and has been on the RT4 Board since 2016.

Taylor Campbell (Treasurer)

Taylor is a software engineer, cryptographer and bail reform activist based in Massachusetts. Taylor has served as Restore The Fourth’s Treasurer since 2017.

Brendan Scherer (Technology Chair)

Born in Saint Paul, MN, Brendan has been working in IT for 10 years, currently at a Minneapolis IoT startup. He has volunteered providing countersurveillance hardware and FOSS software for RT4-MN.

Zaki Manian (At-Large)

Zaki is a blockchain technology entrepreneur and advisor, based out of Los Altos, California. In 2013, Zaki helped to found Restore The Fourth and was on the Board from 2013-2019 before rejoining in 2020. In 2014, he founded SKUChain with the mission of bringing cryptographic trust to the supply chain. In 2017, he became an Executive Director at the Trusted IoT Alliance. Since 2018, Zaki has been a Director of Tendermint Labs and the Principal Co-founder of Iqlusion, and an advisor at TruStory. Zaki holds a BA in the History and Sociology of Science from the University of Pennsylvania. 

Stephen Perez (Program and Communications Director)

Stephen holds a master’s degree in Sociology from Binghamton University (SUNY). He has worked as a researcher and writer for the Binghamton Human Rights Institute and the Human Rights Quarterly, where he studied social movements and extremist groups. He has published articles on mass incarceration, the history of police surveillance, and the suppression of social dissent. He is an activist committed to liberation and the commons.

Stephen supports our congressional outreach and leads the production of our advocacy materials. He supports both RT4’s development initiatives and programs. As communications director, he manages RT4’s media relations, social media, and press calendar. He directs our Communications Working Group as well. He can be reached at stephen@restorethe4th.com.