After 43 Years, Activists Admit Theft At FBI Office That Exposed Domestic Spying - NBCNews

[MADem]

62. Your example is a page from ACLU v. Ashcroft LAWSUIT.

How did that pan out, now?

The Court subsequently found section 2709 of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act unconstitutional. It reasoned that it could not find in the provision an implied right for the person receiving the subpoena to challenge it in court as is constitutionally required.

The finding of unconstitutionality essentially dismisses any claimed presumptive legal need for absolute secrecy in regard to terrorism cases. The USA PATRIOT Act is affected only if the limits on NSLs in terrorism cases also apply to non-terrorism cases such as those authorized by the Act.[4] The government was expected to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court, and until the district court ruling is reviewed, the secrecy procedures of the NSL remain in place.[citation needed]

...On August 10, 2010, after 6 years Nicholas Merrill was partially released from his gag order and allowed to reveal his identity, although he could not reveal what information the FBI sought from him. This was 3 years after Merill won a 'liberty award' from the ACLU, which had to present the award to an empty chair at the time. Merrill has since founded the nonprofit Calyx Institute to provide education and research on privacy issues.

The Doe v. Ashcroft/Gonzales/Mukasey/Holder case yielded two significant rulings. The first was a September 2004 district court decision that the national security letter statute was unconstitutional, which prompted Congress to amend the law to allow a recipient to challenge the demand for records and the gag order.[5] The second was a December 2008 appeals court decision that held that parts of the amended gag provisions violated the First Amendment and that, to avoid this, the FBI must prove to a court that disclosure would harm national security in cases where the recipient resists the gag order.[6]

On August 10, 2010, after more than 6 years, Nicholas Merrill was partially released from his gag order and allowed to reveal his identity, although he still cannot reveal what information the FBI sought from him.[7] This was 3 years after Merrill won The Roger Baldwin 'Medal of Liberty'[8] award from the ACLU, which had to present the award to an empty chair at the time. Merrill has founded the nonprofit Calyx Institute to provide education and research on privacy issues.[9]

He held the talk "The importance of resisting Excessive Government Surveillance" at the annual Chaos Communication Congress 2010 from the German Hacker Group Chaos Computer Club in which he told his story of the past 6 years.

Full ruling here:
https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/FilesPDFs/nsl_decision.pdf

Not sure what you're rolling on the floor about...the ACLU pretty much won that one.