National Security Letters challenged
p2pnet.net News:- FBI agents use National Security Letters (NSLs) to demand detailed information about people’s private Net communications from ISPs, web mail providers and other communications service providers.
Authorized by the USA PATRIOT Act, they’re issued directly by FBI agents without court supervision and without probable cause.
Now the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) has filed a friend-of-the court brief supporting the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) suit challenging NSLs’ constitutionality.
"Before PATRIOT, the FBI could use National Security Letters only for securing the records of suspected terrorists or spies," says EFF attorney and Equal Justice Works Fellow Kevin Bankston.
"Now the FBI can use them to get private records about anybody it thinks could be relevant to a terrorism or espionage investigation, without ever having to show probable cause to a judge."
The challenge to the NSL provision was filed on April 6 but it took nearly three weeks for the ACLU to reach an agreement with the government that allowed the disclosure of anything at all about the case, it says on its website, going on:
"A redacted version of the complaint is now publicly available, but many details about the case are still under seal."
The ACLU brief and supporting documents are on the ACLU site.
The EFF argues the portion of the PATRIOT Act authorizing the "warrantless government demands" is unconstitutional, violating both First Amendment free speech rights and the Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches and seizures.
The EFF argues the portion of the PATRIOT Act authorizing the "warrantless government demands" is unconstitutional, violating both First Amendment free speech rights and the Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches and seizures.
"By allowing FBI agents to access the complete online history of innocent Americans without proper safeguards against abuse, PATRIOT threatens to chill free speech on the Internet and make it impossible for Internet users to share unpopular ideas or associate with controversial groups anonymously," says the EFF in a statement.
Using National Security Letters, "the FBI can see what websites you visit, what mailing lists you subscribe to, who you correspond with, and much more—all without judicial oversight of any kind," Bankston states. "Yet this unrestrained power to examine innocent citizens’ First Amendment activities online is merely one of the unconstitutional surveillance authorities granted to the FBI by the PATRIOT Act."
Co-signatories include the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Online Policy Group, Salon Media Group’s division the WELL, and the US Internet Industry Association.
