A federal district court judge in New York has fully lifted an 11-year-old gag order that the FBI imposed on Nicholas Merrill, the founder of a small Internet service provider, to prevent him from speaking about a national security letter served on him in 2004.
It marked the first time such a gag order has been fully lifted since the USA Patriot Act in 2001 expanded the FBI’s authority to unilaterally demand that certain businesses turn over records simply by writing a letter saying the information is needed for national security purposes.
Like other NSL recipients, Merrill was also instructed that he could not mention the order to anyone.
Merrill said the court ruling allowing him to discuss the details of the sealed request in full will allow him to ignite a debate among Americans about the unchecked surveillance powers of the U.S. government.
“For more than a decade, the FBI has fought tooth and nail in order to prevent me from speaking freely about the NSL I received,” Merrill said in a press release published by the Calyx Institute, where he serves as director.
U.S. District Court Judge Victor Marrero’s decision “vindicates the public’s right to know how the FBI uses warrantless surveillance to peer into our digital lives,” Merrill said. “I hope today’s victory will finally allow Americans to engage in an informed debate about the proper scope of the government’s warrantless surveillance powers.”
Merrill and the American Civil Liberties Union launched what turned out to be a long legal battle against the FBI in 2004 in the case Doe v. Ashcroft. Merrill finally won the right to reveal his own identity in 2010.
The FBI withdrew its national security letter request after Merrill continually refused to comply, but Merrill decided to keep fighting the gag order. Law students and attorneys of the Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic at Yale Law School represented him in his 2015 case against the Justice Department and the FBI seeking to overturn the gag order.
In his ruling, the judge found no “good reason” to continue to silence Merrill about his experience with the FBI. If Merrill were only allowed to disclose details about the request “in a world in which no threat of terrorism exists,” or in the case that the FBI disclosed the records itself — two extremely unlikely possibilities — it would effectively prevent “accountability of the government to the people,” the judge wrote.
Merrill is not free to talk quite yet, however — he will remain under gag order for 90 days, giving the government time to appeal.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation estimates that over 300,000 national security letters have been issued since 2001. The Justice Department concluded in 2008 that the FBI had abused its power, often gathering information on large numbers of U.S. citizens, infringing on their First Amendment rights, and leaving hardly any paper trail, until changes were adopted in 2006.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence announced earlier this year that the FBI would start presumptively terminating national security letter nondisclosure orders either three years after the opening of a fully predicated investigation or at the investigation’s close, whichever came earlier. But that change was not retroactive.
The Patriot Act was enacted because of an “Outsider” Committing these Terrorist Acts and yet they treat us all, the domestic population, as if we are the, “Outsiders.”
While it is obvious what they are doing. The language is odd and weird.
I thought other courts had declared the gag order to violate the First Amendment.
But we can’t forget about the CT librarians:
http://www.policestateusa.com/2014/librarians-gagged-patriot-act/
It is safe to assume every ISP and VPN service provider in the USA, from the largest to the smallest company has been issued an NSL. We have entered into a full on police state. Major players such as Microsoft and Google rob us of our privacy at the operating system level. It is not hard to understand that we are on the verge of something terrible. The threat is obvious and discouraging, the ease of which we will be accused of criminality because of what we read and think is here. I collect propaganda from all sorts of nasty groups just so I can understand their motivates and understand their organization, could this be used against me??? I do think our government is corrupt and operates like a criminal syndicate, will this thought be used against me??? I believe it will and it is safer for me to assume it will and prepare for a defence. I am lucky, I have a good lawyer.
The n sa probably have Microsoft one of these NSL, Windows 10 devices are logging keys, scanning drives and doing any and everything to invade everyone’s privacy.
I have nothing to hide but just find it wild how intrusive MS is this time around with Windows 10.
Google Windows 10 privacy with extra keywords like webcam, microphone, keylogger and file scan for more info from the tech community.
Not sure how legal it is to farm private data without consent.
The Justice Department concluded in 2008 that the FBI had abused their power, often gathering information on large numbers of U.S. citizens, infringing on their First Amendment rights, and leaving hardly any paper trail, until changes were adopted in 2006.
Correct me if I am wrong, but, don’t you mean, …infringing on their (Fourth Amendment rights and not their) First Amendment rights…?
Otherwise, thanks for this reporting. ;)
Why does anybody comply with this in the first place?
That FBI logo contains the word integrity …uh, what? Last I checked, integrity is doing the right thing when nobody is watching.
FBI STASI
COINTELPRO scum
When an order from the government violates the Constitution, do not comply. The burden of proof rests with on the accuser. Besides, these days there are people who will gladly take up arms and stand with you to force them to stop.
He’s been fighting the gag order for more than a decade and the government gets an additional 90 days to appeal? Give me a break. They’ve had 11 years to come up with counterarguments. Clearly they failed, but what are the chances that they’ll find someone to agree with them in those 90 days and the gag order doesn’t end up being lifted. Pretty good I would guess,
quote”The Electronic Frontier Foundation estimates that over 300,000 National Security Letters have been issued since 2001. “unquote
300,000 NSL’s??? This redefines absurd. Even since WW11 this would be absurd, if not goddamned insane. The German Stazi would be green with envy. I mean THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND NSL’s ? If this isn’t living proof the FBI has become a rogue agency, I don’t know what is. Add the fact of their use of thousands of “paid informants” who were authorized to break the law, and a picture of Russian KGB starts to form. And here I thought we lived in the same America as the one I pledged allegiance to for 12 stinking years. unt ugh. It’s now the United States of Amerika. If only the vets who died in WW11 could see us now…they would puke, if not revolt in armed insurrection. After all..they died trying to protect what these scum sucking cockroaches in the FBI/CIA/NSA/DHS/DEA have destroyed.
The only question left is ..why haven’t these scumbags been brought before Congress, notwithstanding why hasn’t anyone in the FBI held accountable? They took an OATH to protect the Constitution, but burned it to ashes instead.
quote”The Justice Department concluded in 2008 that the FBI had abused their power, often gathering information on large numbers of U.S. citizens, infringing on their First Amendment rights, and leaving hardly any paper trail, until changes were adopted in 2006.”unquote
Abused is a massive understatement. Shades of J Edgar and Cointelpro. Somewhere, Hoover must be smiling.
Well said.
Hayden and other officers involved should be court martialed for conduct unbecoming, dereliction of duty, etc… for cause the citizens of American to un-become US citizens.
It may not be a stretch to say We are all terror suspects.
ACLU has been sleeping thru the abuses by the justice department.
The FBI and their STASI crew.
Fantastic news. The Constitution is more important than the FBI.
A lovely thought, but don’t hold your breath…
Why, even?