Americans Deserve Their Day in Court About NSA Mass Surveillance Programs

Tuesday, September 10, 2019
By Paul Martin

By David Greene
ActivistPost.com
SEPTEMBER 9, 2019

EFF continues our fight to have the U.S. courts protect you from mass government surveillance. Today in our landmark Jewel v. NSA case, we filed our opening brief in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, asserting that the courts don’t have to turn a blind eye to the government’s actions. Instead, the court must ensure justice for the millions of innocent Americans who have had their communications subjected to the NSA’s mass spying programs since 2001.

Just this spring the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a case called Fazaga v. FBI that the state secrets privilege does not apply to cases challenging domestic electronic surveillance for national security. Instead such cases must go forward to the merits of whether the spying is illegal. Today we asked the appeals court to apply that same reasoning to Jewel v. NSA and reverse a judge’s order of dismissal so our clients, and the American people, can finally have their day in court.

We argue in our brief:

For over a decade, plaintiffs have sought a determination of whether the government’s acknowledged mass surveillance of the Internet communications and telephone records of hundreds of millions of Americans violates the Constitution and federal statutory law. But the district court refused to do so, defying Congress’s express command that such claims be decided on the merits—a command recently confirmed by this Court.

The Rest…HERE

Leave a Reply

Join the revolution in 2018. Revolution Radio is 100% volunteer ran. Any contributions are greatly appreciated. God bless!

Follow us on Twitter