[Grovenet] Courts Rebuke Bush Administration on Spying Laws

[Ed Davie]

Two federal courts handed down stunning victories 
for civil liberties last week, starkly rejecting 
White House abuses of power through the Patriot 
Act and broad use of secrecy claims to dodge 
public accountability.

In the only legal challenge ever brought regarding 
the National Security Letter (NSL) provision of 
the amended Patriot Act, a New York federal court 
struck down the current rules. The NSL statute has 
permitted the FBI to issue secret demands for 
personal records without court approval. It also 
empowers the government to gag recipients from 
even discussing these NSLs.

Not only did District Court Judge Victor Marrero 
rule that this gag power violates the First 
Amendment and the fundamental separation of 
powers, he also found that, because the gag 
provisions could not be separated from the entire 
amended statute, the Patriot NSL statute must be 
struck down in its entirety. This is an historic 
affirmation of principle that extends beyond even 
the requests made in the ACLU's legal brief!

Meanwhile, a federal judge in Washington, D.C. 
rejected broad claims of government secrecy in our 
Freedom of Information Act lawsuit over documents 
related to the Bush NSA wiretapping program. This 
ruling strikes another blow to the 
administration's sweeping and often unfounded 
secrecy claims and compels the Department of 
Justice, the FBI and the NSA to provide additional 
explanations for their withholding of many 
documents about the program, and the legal 
justifications for the program in particular.