The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFOP) is leading a challenge to a ruling by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) denying standing to a legal challenge by a Yale law school clinic. The RCFOP claims the ruling violated the First Amendment right to court proceedings that should be open to all members of the public. (RCFOP press release, November 26, 2013)
The ruling held that the American Civil Liberties Union alone had standing to ask for the FISC opinions that form the foundation for the National Security Agency’s secret surveillance programs. The brief filed with the FISA said that the clinic was in effect an agent of people who could not go to court but had a huge stake in the issue of domestic spying. (Courthouse News Service, December 2, 12013, by Nick Divito)