The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is challenging the government over its National Security Letters , known as NSLs. EFF filed two briefs with the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week claiming the letters violate the First Amendment by preventing letter recipients from notifying their clients of the letters existence or that they are contesting the letters in court. (EFF, March 3, 2014, press release)
Even though a federal judge ruled last year that the FBI’s imposing gag orders along with the NSLs, she and other judges have continued to support NSLs in cases challenging them. (Wired, January 23, 2014, by Kim Zetter)
Washington Post reporter Barton Gellman said in a panel discussion recently that he was told his phone records were taken by the government through a NLS and that in response he was taking extra time to deal with security issues. Gellman has been reporting on the documents stolen by former NSA employee Edward Snowden. (Politico, February 25, 2014, by Dylan Byers)
In Just Security Julian Sanchez, February 26, 2014, writes that under the NSL law, there are only two justifications for issuing NSLs to access telecommunications records, in cases of international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities. Sanchez questioned that Gellman was involved in either pursuit.