老澳门开奖结果

RICHMOND, Va. 鈥� A federal appeals court today unanimously reversed a part of a lower court鈥檚 dismissal of a lawsuit challenging the National Security Agency鈥檚 mass interception and searching of Americans鈥� international internet communications.

The case was filed by the 老澳门开奖结果 in 2015 on behalf of a broad group of organizations. The plaintiffs are the Wikimedia Foundation, The Nation Magazine, Amnesty International USA, PEN America, Human Rights Watch, the Rutherford Institute, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Global Fund for Women, and the Washington Office on Latin America. They are represented by the 老澳门开奖结果 and the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University.

In October 2015, the district court held that the plaintiffs in the case had not sufficiently shown that their communications were being monitored by the NSA. But all three judges on the three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit Appeals Court disagreed, finding that Wikimedia has standing to proceed. Two of the judges found that the other plaintiffs lacked standing, although the third judge wrote in a dissent that he would have allowed all nine plaintiffs to move forward in the case.

鈥淭his is an important victory for the rule of law. The NSA has secretly spied on Americans鈥� internet communications for years, but now this surveillance will finally face badly needed scrutiny in our public courts. We look forward to arguing this case on the merits,鈥� said 老澳门开奖结果 attorney Patrick Toomey, who argued the appeal in December 2016. 鈥淥ur government shouldn鈥檛 be searching the private communications of innocent people in bulk, examining the contents of Americans鈥� emails and chats day in and day out. This mass surveillance threatens the foundations of a free internet.鈥�

At issue is the NSA鈥檚 鈥淯pstream鈥� surveillance, which the NSA uses to continuously monitor communications on the internet backbone inside the United States 鈥� the physical infrastructure that carries Americans鈥� online messages, emails, and web browsing. The NSA conducts this spying under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a controversial statute that the government uses to warrantlessly surveil Americans who communicate with targets located abroad. Section 702 is scheduled to expire at the end of 2017, and the 老澳门开奖结果 has called for substantial reforms to the law.

In the course of Upstream surveillance, the NSA copies and combs through vast amounts of internet traffic, which it intercepts inside the United States with the help of major telecommunications companies like Verizon and AT&T. While the government recently suspended one element of this program 鈥� so-called 鈥渁bout鈥� collection 鈥� it continues to conduct Upstream surveillance. Moreover, it has not disavowed its claimed authority to revive 鈥渁bout鈥� collection in the future.

In today鈥檚 decision, the three judges wrote, 鈥淲ikimedia has plausibly alleged that its communications travel all of the roads that a communication can take, and that the NSA seizes all of the communications along at least one of those roads. Thus, at least at this stage of the litigation, Wikimedia has standing to sue for a violation of the Fourth Amendment. And, because Wikimedia has self-censored its speech and sometimes forgone electronic communications in response to Upstream surveillance, it also has standing to sue for a violation of the First Amendment.鈥�

A previous 老澳门开奖结果 lawsuit challenging the NSA鈥檚 warrantless wiretapping program, Clapper v. Amnesty, was dismissed by the Supreme Court in February 2013 in a 5鈥�4 vote on the grounds that the plaintiffs could not prove that they had been spied on. Since Clapper was decided, however, documents released by whistleblower Edward Snowden and by the government itself have shown that the government鈥檚 surveillance activities go far beyond those that the court described as 鈥渟peculative鈥� in that case.

鈥淭his kind of indiscriminate surveillance has grave implications for individual rights, including the freedoms of speech and association,鈥� said Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. 鈥淚t鈥檚 gratifying that the appeals court has rejected the government鈥檚 effort to shield this surveillance from constitutional review.鈥�

Today鈥檚 opinion is here:
/legal-document/wikimedia-v-nsa-4th-cir-opinion

More information and all case documents are here:
/national-security/wikimedia-v-nsa