The executive director of the Calyx Institute. He was president of an Internet service provider, or ISP, and filed the first court challenge to the FBI’s national security letters in 2004. For six years the FBI barred him from revealing it had sent him a national security letter demanding information about his clients–including Democracy Now!, whose website was hosted by his company. Merrill fought the government and won a settlement in 2010 with the help of the ACLU that allowed him to reveal his identity and discuss some details about his experience.