Sunday, June 06, 2010
Having received no response to its Freedom of Information Act request, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed suit against the federal government seeking records showing how it has been collecting Americans’ international emails and phone records without a warrant.
The spying was authorized by amendments adopted in 2008 by Congress to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which was originally crafted to allow for such activities as long as they were approved by a special federal court. However, the 2008 amendments (referred to as FAA) gave the Executive Branch the authority to spy on Americans’ foreign communications without a warrant.
“News reports suggest that the government has used its FAA powers to collect U.S. citizens’ and residents’ international communications by the millions and has used the FAA improperly to collect purely domestic communications,” contends the ACLU in its lawsuit.
The ACLU wants access to special reports produced by the U.S. attorney general, the director of national intelligence and inspectors general who assess the “interception, analysis and dissemination of U.S. citizens’ and residents’ communications under the law.”
-Noel Brinkerhoff
ACLU Sues to See Fed E-Mail Spying Records (by Nick Divito, Courthouse News Service)
ACLU v. Office of the Director of National Intelligence (U.S. District Court, Southern New York) (pdf)
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