Wednesday, December 17, 2008

US Patriot Act’s Silencing Gag Provision Ruled Unconstitutional, ACLU Reports

The American Civil Liberties Union writes:

A federal appeals court today upheld, in part, a decision striking down provisions of the Patriot Act that prevent national security letter (NSL) recipients from speaking out about the secret records demands. The decision comes in an American Civil Liberties Union and New York Civil Liberties Union lawsuit challenging the FBI’s authority to use NSLs to demand sensitive and private customer records from Internet Service Providers and then forbid them from discussing the requests. Siding with the ACLU, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit found that the statute’s gag provisions violate the First Amendment.

I’ve asked Google if they ever received such a “national security letter” coming with (what might now be a former) silencing provision, but they tell me “we do not comment publicly on law enforcement requests.”

[Via Reddit.]

US Patriot Act’s Silencin ... by Philipp Lenssen | Comments (1)

>> More posts

Advertisement