Federal
Judge Allows EFF’s NSA Mass Spying Case to Proceed
Rejects
Government’s State Secret Privilege Claims in Jewel v. NSA and Shubert v. Obama
EFFJuly 9, 2013
San Francisco – A federal judge today rejected the U.S. government’s latest attempt to dismiss the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s (EFF’s) long-running challenge to the government’s illegal dragnet surveillance programs. Today’s ruling means the allegations at the heart of the Jewel case move forward under the supervision of a public federal court.
“The court rightly found that the traditional legal system can determine the legality of the mass, dragnet surveillance of innocent Americans and rejected the government’s invocation of the state secrets privilege to have the case dismissed,” said Cindy Cohn, EFF’s Legal Director. “Over the last month, we came face-to-face with new details of mass, untargeted collection of phone and Internet records, substantially confirmed by the Director of National Intelligence. Today’s decision sets the stage for finally getting a ruling that can stop the dragnet surveillance and restore Americans’ constitutional rights.”
In the ruling, Judge Jeffrey White
of the Northern District of California federal court agreed with EFF that the
very subject matter of the lawsuit is not a state secret, and any properly
classified details can be litigated under the procedures of the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). As Judge White wrote in the decision,
“Congress intended for FISA to displace the common law rules such as the state
secrets privilege with regard to matter within FISA’s purview.” While the court
allowed the constitutional questions to go forward, it also dismissed some of
the statutory claims. A status conference is set for August 23.
EFF’s Jewel case is
joined in the litigation with another case, Shubert v. Obama.“We are pleased that the court found that FISA overrides the state secrets privilege and look forward to addressing the substance of the illegal mass surveillance,” said counsel for Shubert, Ilann Maazel of Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady LLP. “The American people deserve their day in court.”
Filed in 2008, Jewel v. NSA is aimed at ending the NSA’s dragnet surveillance of millions of ordinary Americans and holding accountable the government officials who illegally authorized it. Evidence in the case includes undisputed documents provided by former AT&T telecommunications technician Mark Klein showing AT&T has routed copies of Internet traffic to a secret room in San Francisco controlled by the NSA. The case is supported by declarations from three NSA whistleblowers along with a mountain of other evidence. The recent blockbuster revelations about the extent of the NSA spying on telecommunications and Internet activities also bolster EFF’s case.
For the full decision:
https://www.eff.org/node/74895
For more on Jewel v. NSA:
https://www.eff.org/cases/jewel
Contacts:
Cindy Cohn
Legal Director
Electronic Frontier Foundation
cindy@eff.org
Kurt OpsahlLegal Director
Electronic Frontier Foundation
cindy@eff.org
Senior Staff Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation
kurt@eff.org
Lee Tien
Senior Staff Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation
tien@eff.org
1 comment:
i hope it is not a dog and pony show, till this snowden awareness now in full view of the human masses of earth, is still shocked and mad about the blackmail gathering of anything the elite gangters can use to extort silence and cooperation from others under their control or not, as to have them in their pocket as pubpets.
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