The Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a letter in federal court holding that the Justice Department lawyer lied in oral arguments about gag orders on national security letters (NSLs) for customer data. The lawyer claimed telecom companies were allowed to discuss the national security requests. The EFF is arguing before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to urge the court to uphold a lower court ruling that the gag orders violate the First Amendment. (The Hill, October 13, 2014, by Cory Bennett)
The Ninth Circuit unsealed a November 6 letter from the Justice Department admitting that they had made a mistake to claiming that telecoms could publicly discuss the quality of specific NSLs. They claimed it was an “inadvertent misstatement by government counsel.” (Courthouse News Service, November 13, 2014, by Maria Dinzeo)