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NSA may no longer be protected by State Secrets privilege in EFF court case!
THANK YOU EDWARD SNOWDEN!
In short, lawsuits by the EFF against the government about NSA warrantless wiretapping and other 4th Amendment violations may begin making significant progress. Up until now, the .gov just called "State secret!" on subpoenas, the courts refused to grant standing to the EFF and the plantiffs it represents, and the lawsuits stalled.
Except thanks to Snowden, these secrets aren't secret anymore, which means the EFF can now re-argue for standing, and likely get it.
This is absolutely good news. Except for the authoritarian neurotics who are losing their shit at seeing their daddy-figures getting embarrassed.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/06/state-secrets-imperiled/
Spygate Leaks Imperil State-Secrets Defense
BY DAVID KRAVETS 06.17.13 4:22 PM
First it was the President George W. Bush administration and then the President Barack Obama administration, which for years have been arguing in court that the state-secrets privilege shields the government from lawsuits accusing it of siphoning Americans’ electronic communications to the National Security Agency without warrants.
But with the recent Spygate leaks, including one that all calling metadata of Verizon customers is being forwarded to the NSA, the government is hard-pressed to maintain that line with a straight face.
“By contrast, the recent disclosures have greatly undermined the factual and legal basis for the government defendants’ separate and distinct state secrets motion,” the Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote in a recent court filing.
The EFF’s lawsuit, which has had a tortured history through the courts, is based in part on allegations of internal AT&T documents, first published by Wired, that outline a secret room in an AT&T San Francisco office and others which allegedly route internet traffic to the NSA.
BY DAVID KRAVETS 06.17.13 4:22 PM
First it was the President George W. Bush administration and then the President Barack Obama administration, which for years have been arguing in court that the state-secrets privilege shields the government from lawsuits accusing it of siphoning Americans’ electronic communications to the National Security Agency without warrants.
But with the recent Spygate leaks, including one that all calling metadata of Verizon customers is being forwarded to the NSA, the government is hard-pressed to maintain that line with a straight face.
“By contrast, the recent disclosures have greatly undermined the factual and legal basis for the government defendants’ separate and distinct state secrets motion,” the Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote in a recent court filing.
The EFF’s lawsuit, which has had a tortured history through the courts, is based in part on allegations of internal AT&T documents, first published by Wired, that outline a secret room in an AT&T San Francisco office and others which allegedly route internet traffic to the NSA.
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