Attorneys for the FBI are in court this morning defending a challenge that the “gag order” that comes with the thousands of national security letters the agency sends out each year, is a constitutional violation of free speech rights. The case originated three years ago, when an unnamed telecommunications company in the San Francisco Bay Area challenged an order it received from the FBI to turn over customers’ information said to be related to a terrorism investigation. The letter also barred the company from telling anyone about the FBI’s demand -- often referred to as a “gag order.”
A lower court last year ruled that gag orders and the letters themselves were unconstitutional and today it heads to the 9th circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. The case pits civil libertarians who say that the letters trample individual rights, against government officials who maintain that secrecy is a necessary tool to protect the country against terrorism and other threats. On Monday, Twitter filed a lawsuit challenging U.S. Department of Justice prohibitions on publishing the exact number of national security letters the company receives last year. Earlier this year, five tech companies reached agreement with federal officials for a "transparency report" to publish a range of national security letters received, but Twitter wants to disclose more details.
A few months ago, the FBI withdrew a national security letter it sent Microsoft after the company filed a lawsuit. Google is also challenging receipt of several letters in court and several other Internet companies including Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Facebook, have filed court papers supporting the unnamed telecommunications challenge to the national security letters.
Guests:
Andrew Crocker, Legal Fellow at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which delivered oral arguments at today’s hearing at the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Robert Turner, Associate Director, Center for National Security Law at the University of Virginia School of Law