Fergie's Tech Blog

U.S. Government Appeals Patriot Act Provision Invalidation

Via ACLU.org.

The U.S. government today appealed a New York federal court ruling striking down the National Security Letter (NSL) provision of the amended Patriot Act.

The appeal comes in a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and New York Civil Liberties Union on behalf of a still-anonymous Internet Service Provider (ISP). The ISP received an NSL demanding private information about a client and imposing a “gag order” preventing the ISP from disclosing its identity as the recipient of an NSL. NSLs are used to obtain access to subscriber, billing or transactional records from ISPs, to obtain a wide array of financial and credit documents, and even to obtain library records – all without prior judicial review.

posted by Fergie @ 11/05/2007 12:17:00 PM