Court Rejects State Secrets Defense in Dragnet Surveillance Case
Source: wired.com
A federal judge today rejected the assertion from President Barack Obamas administration that the state secrets defense barred a lawsuit alleging the government is illegally siphoning Americans communications to the National Security Agency.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White in San Francisco, however, did not give the Electronic Frontier Foundation the green light to sue the government in a long-running case that dates to 2008, with trips to the appellate courts in between.
The EFFs lawsuit accuses the federal government of working with the nations largest telecommunication companies to illegally funnel Americans electronic communications to the National Security Agency a surveillance program the EFF said commenced under the President George W. Bush administration following 9/11. The allegations were based on a former AT&T technicians documents that outline a secret room in an AT&T San Francisco office that routes internet traffic to the NSA.
The decision (.pdf) comes a month after the Guardian leaked documents that seemingly support the EFFs allegations.
Read more: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/07/state-secrets-defense/
questionseverything
(9,655 posts)That is huge, Cindy Cohn, the EFFs legal director, said in a telephone interview. That was the centerpiece of the governments defense.
brett_jv
(1,245 posts)I'm stoked to hear this ....
questionseverything
(9,655 posts)is equally enlightening
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/26315908/
he explains how fisa is actually changing the law
Solly Mack
(90,769 posts)Catherina
(35,568 posts)limpyhobbler
(8,244 posts)In this sense his leaks have made a big difference already.
East Coast Pirate
(775 posts)His whistleblowing changed the atmosphere.