The Electric Freedom Foundation is suing the Department of Transportation for its records on drones operating in U.S. airspace. EFF claims the drones are used for surveillance of U.S. citizens and are a matter of great public concern. -db From The Washington Post, January 13, 2012, by Jason Ukman. Full story
A federal district judge ruled that the Justice Department does not have to provide a Muslim civil rights group with FBI investigative guidelines. The judge held that revealing the guidelines would compromise the FBI’s ability to conduct investigations and prosecutions. -db From The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, November 15, 2011, by J.C. Derrick. Full story
A federal judge ruled that the FBI could withhold data from its terrorism investigations from a New York Times investigative reporter. The judge said The New York Times had not rebutted the FBI’s statement that they had fulfilled requests made under the Freedom of Information Act except for that under FOIA exemption. -db From the Courthouse News Service, November 10, 2011, by Adam Klasfeld. Full story
The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the FBI and the National Security Agency for withholding information about the eGuardian monitoring system that collects information on “suspicious activity” that may include taking photos of important buildings. The ACLU has been unsuccessful in its attempts to acquire the information through the Freedom of Information Act. The ACLU writes in their court filing, “these records will significantly contribute to the public’s understanding of how local, state and
A flounder of a national whistleblowers group has sued the FBI for preventing her from publishing a book though she claims the book contains no classified information. Sibel D. Edmonds had worked for the FBI after 9/11 as a contractor rather than an employee and said that many of her reports about misconduct of co-workers were not fully investigated and that she was fired for her reports. -db From the Courthouse News Service, July 25,