The Tech Policy Press Podcast Cindy Cohn on How to Sustain the Fight Against Authoritarianism
Mar 8, 2026
Cindy Cohn, executive director emerita of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and longtime digital rights lawyer, reflects on three decades defending privacy and encryption. She recounts landmark legal fights from the Bernstein case to NSA revelations. Conversations cover surveillance’s threat to democracy, metadata power, building pro-democracy movements, and how to sustain activism without burning out.
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Lawyer Mr Lewin Stopped A Forced Church Performance
- Cindy Cohn recalls being excused from a public school choir Easter performance after her lawyer mentor Mr. Lewin intervened to protect her conscience rights.
- That episode inspired her to pursue law and defend people with less power because it showed how legal advocacy can immediately protect individuals.
House Party Introduced Her To Early Hackers
- Cindy describes meeting John Gilmore and early hackers at a 1990 housewarming that pulled her into the pre-Web, decentralized online community.
- That encounter led to work on the Bernstein encryption case defending a grad student who wanted to publish cryptographic code.
Code Is Speech And Encryption Became Accessible
- Bernstein v. DOJ challenged export rules that treated cryptographic code as munitions, framing code publication as protected speech.
- Winning reduced export barriers and helped unlock widespread strong encryption crucial for online privacy.
