An option for some might be to transfer assets to American bank accounts. But opening accounts in the United States for those living abroad has become virtually impossible in the post- 9/11 world, foreign employers will typically only pay salaries into local accounts, and this option does not address home mortgages, insurance policies, etc. (Foreign branches of American banks are not exempt from the law’s reporting requirements either.)

To do nothing is a disaster scenario for Americans overseas. Middle-class taxpayers will continue to lose the financial accounts critical to their daily lives at an accelerating rate or they will, in desperation, renounce their U.S. citizenship. Either way, America’s international presence and competitiveness will be hurt.

Worse yet, the law has spawned a potentially more intrusive program known as the Global Account Tax Compliance Act, or Gatca. The proposal, developed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, calls for data from accounts opened by a foreign national to be automatically reported to that person’s homeland tax authorities. While Gatca is in an early stage of negotiation and implementation, observers believe that as many as 65 countries will ultimately be involved.

Fatca, and by extension Gatca, are forming more links in the chain of global government snooping into the lives of innocent individuals under the guise of identifying criminals and tax cheats. For Americans, it is a massive breach of the Fourth Amendment, which forbids unreasonable search and seizure.

The repeal of Fatca is the only way to end this dangerous and growing government overreach. A bill has been introduced in the United States Senate to repeal provisions of the law but, in the heat of the approaching presidential campaign, congressional repeal is not going to happen.

The only viable option is legal action to challenge the law’s constitutionality in the courts. We, a bipartisan group of Americans living overseas, have formed a group called Fatca Legal Action to fund and mount this challenge. The Republican National Committee and Republicans Overseas have endorsed the legal repeal of Fatca. To date, neither Democrats Abroad nor the Democratic National Committee has done so, but there is strong and growing support among rank-and-file Democrats living overseas, several of whom have agreed to be named as plaintiffs when the lawsuit is filed in the next few weeks.

If the law is voided in the United States on constitutional grounds, it is likely that Gatca, without the support of the world’s largest financial community, will not survive either.

Stu Haugen is an American marketing, sales and general management expert who has lived and worked overseas for 29 years.