Civil liberties groups yesterday filed a brief in the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court arguing that Google and Microsoft must be ungagged so they can describe their role in the government’s surveillance of the internet. The brief supports motions filed previously by Google and Microsoft requesting orders freeing them to publish information, in aggregate form, about the extent of the government’s court-authorized access to their data.
The First Amendment Coalition (FAC) organized the filing of the amicus brief, which was written by first amendment lawyers Floyd Abrams and Dean Ringel. The brief was filed on FAC’s behalf and on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Democracy & Technology, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and TechFreedom.
While acknowledging the need for secrecy surrounding many aspects of the FISA Court’s work, the civil liberties groups contend that free speech safeguards nonetheless apply with special force to judicial actions that purport to bar private parties like Google and Microsoft from describing their own interaction with government agencies wielding court-sanctioned demands for data access.
The brief says: “In seeking to provide the public with information about the number of government requests received and the number of affected subscriber accounts, Google and Microsoft each seeks to engage in speech that addresses governmental affairs in the most profound way that any citizen can.”
“Such speech, relating to the ‘structures and forms of government’ and ‘the manner in which government is operated or should be operated,’ is at the very core of the First Amendment,” the brief argues.
“The biggest problem with the FISA Court is its complete lack of transparency,” said Peter Scheer, executive direct for FAC. “Of course it can’t be run like a regular public court, but that doesn’t mean every FISA Court order and legal opinion should be automatically and totally secret,” he said. “No court, not even the FISA Court, is categorically exempt from the commands of the first amendment.”
A copy of the brief is available here.
FAC is a section 501C(3) nonprofit dedicated to free speech and government transparency. FAC is active at the state and local levels within California, and also nationally. Other recent national legal matters include FAC’s suit against the US Department of Justice over access to legal memos analyzing “targeted killings.” In addition, FAC has intervened in the appeal of the Apple v. Samsung patent infringement case, currently pending before the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.—SCHEER
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CONTACT:
Peter Scheer
First Amendment Coalition
534 4th Street Suite B
San Rafael, CA 94901
415.886.7081
pscheer@facelementor.wpengine.com
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Floyd Abrams
Dean Ringel
212.701.3000
Cahill Gordon & Reindel
80 Pine Street
New York, NY 10005
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