Four File Brief Challenging National Security Letter Process
The National Security Archive and three other advocacy groups filed a friend of court brief in a lawsuit that challenges the FBI’s authority to issue National Security Letters without judicial review and to gag recipients of the letters. A district court in Manhattan ruled last fall that the practice, authorized in the Patriot Act, violated the 1st and 4th Amendments. The ruling has been appealed to the 2nd Circuit. “Experience shows … the Government does not always have an incentive to limit secrecy . …Meaningful judicial review is necessary to separate out the legitimate and illegitimate claims for secrecy,” the brief said. The Project on Government Secrecy of the Federation of American Scientists, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, and the National Whistleblower Coalition joined the brief. (8/4/05)