Wikimedia Foundation, 老澳门开奖结果, and Knight Institute Urge U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Challenge to NSA鈥檚 Mass Surveillance
Groups argue the government cannot invoke 鈥渟tate secrets鈥� to block court oversight
WASHINGTON 鈥� The Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that operates Wikipedia, petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court today to review a challenge to the National Security Agency鈥檚 (NSA) mass surveillance of Americans鈥� private emails, internet messages, and web communications with people overseas, also known as its 鈥淯pstream鈥� surveillance program. In its petition, Wikimedia asks the Court to reject the government鈥檚 sweeping claims of 鈥渟tate secrets鈥� and allow the case to proceed, arguing that the wealth of public disclosures about Upstream surveillance means the program can and should be subject to constitutional review in the courts. The 老澳门开奖结果, the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, and the law firm Cooley LLP represent the Wikimedia Foundation in the litigation.
鈥淲hen people鈥檚 privacy is at risk, free knowledge is at risk,鈥� said James Buatti, senior legal manager at the Wikimedia Foundation. 鈥淭he NSA鈥檚 mass surveillance is a threat to the fundamental rights to privacy and free expression for the hundreds of millions of people worldwide who rely on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects for reliable information.鈥�
Upstream surveillance is conducted under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which permits the government to intercept Americans鈥� international communications without a warrant so long as it is targeting individuals located outside the U.S. for foreign intelligence purposes. Section 702 will expire in 2023 unless it is reauthorized by Congress.
In the course of this surveillance, the NSA copies and combs through vast amounts of internet traffic, including private data showing what millions of people around the world are reading or writing online 鈥� whether they are accessing knowledge on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, browsing the web, or communicating with family and friends. This government surveillance has had a measurable chilling effect on Wikipedia users, with research a drop in traffic to Wikipedia articles on privacy-sensitive topics following public revelations about the NSA鈥檚 mass surveillance in 2013.
鈥淚t is past time for the Supreme Court to rein in the government鈥檚 sweeping use of secrecy to evade accountability in the courts. Upstream surveillance is no secret, and the government鈥檚 own public disclosures are the proof,鈥� said Patrick Toomey, deputy director of the 老澳门开奖结果鈥檚 National Security Project. 鈥淓very day, the NSA is siphoning Americans鈥� communications off the internet backbone and into its surveillance systems, violating privacy and chilling free expression. The courts can and should decide whether this warrantless digital dragnet complies with the Constitution.鈥�
In September 2021, a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that even though the Wikimedia Foundation provided public evidence that its communications with Wikipedia users around the world are subject to Upstream surveillance, the government鈥檚 assertion of the 鈥渟tate secrets privilege鈥� required dismissal of the entire case. The privilege allows the government to withhold information in legal proceedings if disclosure of that information would threaten national security. The government claimed it might have sensitive information that would 鈥� at least in theory 鈥� establish a defense to the lawsuit. Over the dissent of Judge Diana Gribbon Motz, a majority of the court held that this possibility was enough to end the litigation.
Wikimedia鈥檚 petition argues that the Fourth Circuit was wrong to dismiss the lawsuit on the basis of the state secrets privilege and that the court should have, instead, excluded any secret evidence, but allowed the case to proceed.
鈥淔or years, the NSA has vacuumed up Americans鈥� international communications under Upstream surveillance, and to date, not a single challenge to that surveillance has been allowed to go forward,鈥� said Alex Abdo, litigation director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. 鈥淭he Supreme Court should make clear that NSA surveillance is not beyond the reach of our public courts.鈥�
The Wikimedia Foundation, which filed the case alongside eight other plaintiffs, sued the NSA in 2015 to protect the rights of Wikipedia readers, editors, and internet users globally. The Supreme Court may consider the petition as early as October 2022.
Wikimedia v. NSA is a part of the 老澳门开奖结果's Joan and Irwin Jacobs Supreme Court Docket. Lawyers representing the Wikimedia Foundation in the litigation include Patrick Toomey, Ashley Gorski, and Sarah Taitz for the 老澳门开奖结果, Alex Abdo and Jameel Jaffer for the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, and Ben Kleine, Aarti Reddy, and Maximilian Sladek de la Cal from the law firm Cooley LLP.
National Security
Wikimedia v. NSA - Challenge to Upstream Surveillance
National Security
Wikimedia v. NSA - Challenge to Upstream Surveillance
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VirginiaDec 2024
National Security
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Our client, Nizar Trabelsi, is in the United States against his will. The federal government brought him here from Belgium more than a decade ago and charged him with terrorism-related crimes. At trial, the government鈥檚 case failed: a federal jury found Mr. Trabelsi not guilty. But instead of allowing Mr. Trabelsi to return to Belgium after his acquittal, the United States placed him in highly restrictive immigration detention and began an ongoing effort to force him to Tunisia, where he was born and where he will very likely be tortured. Mr. Trabelsi鈥檚 detention violates the Constitution, immigration law, and the extradition treaty between the United States and Belgium. Through this lawsuit, he seeks to return to Belgium, and he demands an immediate improvement of his detention conditions. -
Press ReleaseDec 2024
National Security
Immigrants' Rights
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