FISA Court Says DOJ's Claim That It Can't Reveal Secret Interpretation Of The Law Is Wrong
from the onward dept
We've written a few times about the EFF's lawsuit against the government, trying to reveal the FISA Court's secret interpretation of the FISA Amendments Act (which is at the core of the NSA surveillance dragnet of all phone record data). The DOJ has warned how this would be the end of the world and, more recently, said that it can't reveal the ruling because the FISA court has said that it must be secret, while an earlier ruling from the FISA court said that the FISA court can't reveal such rulings -- only the DOJ can. The EFF sought clarification, and now the FISA court has more or less said that the DOJ's argument is full of it, and yes, the DOJ can reveal such things without violating the laws protecting FISA court rulings.The Court disagrees with the Government that FISC Rule 62 prohibits the disclosure of the copies of the FISC Opinion to EFF under FOIA.... The Government contends that Rule 62 has the effect of placing copies of the Opinion in its possession "under this Court's seal."... The term "seal," however, does not appear in Rule 62, and contrary to the Government's contention, Rule 62 neither explicitly nor implicitly places the Government's copies of the Opinion "under seal."This doesn't mean the case is over, but it does mean that the DOJ can no longer use the excuse that even if it's required to disclose the FISC ruling under the FOIA that it can't because FISC rulings are secret under that FISC Rule 62.
Rule 62 contains four subsections, all of which generally concern the "Release of Court Records," but each address a distinct situation... None of these provisions is applicable here.
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Filed Under: doj, fisa, fisa amendments act, foia, secret interpretation
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Troll The NSA 7PM EST
Assassination Attack Domestic security Drill Exercise Cops Law enforcement Authorities Disaster assistance Disaster management DNDO (Domestic Nuclear Detection Office) National preparedness Mitigation Prevention Response Chemical spill Suspicious package/device Toxic National laboratory Nuclear facility Nuclear threat Cloud Plume Radiation Radioactive Leak Biological infection (prevent) Chemical burn Biological Epidemic Hazardous material incident
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzX0FV-C4XE
CLUCK CLUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-otQBJuvhqw
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Re:
Prance on, jester.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMEe7JqBgvg
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6O4Qbmbn2w
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Kid Gloves
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Re: Kid Gloves
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Does anyone have idea how much a pool of data (or even the knowledge of one) that vast is worth? ("hey buddy, we can track and block IP's and cell phones all. day. long. I can keep pushing this for you" .. "Yeah? Hows a million and a half sound to come work for us?"
Step 6. Close the revolving doors
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Re: Kid Gloves
Martin Luther King, Jr.
I'm sure he meant to say: Reply to the characters in the content of their e-mails of course?
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Too much noise from the coop!
Cluck. And also clukk!
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Courts don't actually have any power to enforce their rulings.
And we're at the stage where the DOJ that says some crooks on Wall Street are "too big to prosecute" may well say that even the Supreme Court is "too little to obey". The rubber-stamping may go on, but it'll be just to keep some lawyer pals in cushy office.
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Re: Courts don't actually have any power to enforce their rulings.
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The new Techdirt story layout format
Follow this layout, and you too can write a Techdirt story!
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Re: The new Techdirt story layout format
Follow this layout and you too can write a troll comment!
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There is a sucker born every minute. When was your minute?
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Actually no. I think that Mike Masnick works on truthiness, which is to say that he uses small pieces of truth as the basis for some interesting stories and points of view, most of which don't seem to add up to much. The current NSA SURVEILLANCE! deal is just that, a little bit of truth, and then dozens of posts repeating and rephrasing various suppositions rather than facts, building mountains out of turd piles.
The best part is if anyone tries to argue, two things happen: The peanut gallery like you dive in and make personal attacks and get insulting, rather than looking and the opposition opinion, and the someone from the Techdirt staff usually jumps in, points to the one small element of truth that underlies the who structure of poop, and says "look, see, it's true!" - and the schmucks (like you) buy it.
So no, I am not whining. I am laughing, loud and long. Ask Mike about the 1st amendment arguments against copyright (and how that played out). It's a great example of truthiness and opinion crashing and burning in front of the courts.
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They seem to be missing any relevance to the article.
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No matter how you slice it, your posts, by their nature, invite this type of response and you know it. We laugh longer and harder at you, sad to say.
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Follow this layout, and you too can write a Techdirt story!
Canned Mike, baby!!
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Senate Appropriations: Cybersecurity Hearing
The NSA Director, General Keith Alexander, is one of the witnesses testifying at this hearing.
It's worth noting the questions that have already come from, among others, Senators Patrick Leahy (Vermont) and Mike Johanns (Nebraska). But it's the questioning from Oregon's Senator Jeff Merkley that touches directly on the FISA Court's interpretation of the law.
Senator Merkley's time starts about 1:23:00 in the CSPAN video. He refers, among other things, to the bill he introduced Tuesday, S.1130 (although not by number), and gets some kind of statement of support for that bill from General Alexander.
Worth watching—and I'm only halfway through the video. Haven't watched any questions beyond Mr Merkley yet.
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Re: Senate Appropriations: Cybersecurity Hearing
For the convenience of those following along at home, here is:
50 U.S.C. § 1861(b) Recipient and contents of application
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... (thinks: "Damn, and I could've just taken that gig putting kids in jail for profit."...
"Approved."
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Re: Re: Senate Appropriations: Cybersecurity Hearing
Sen. Feinstein: [~01:57:00] …
… Just to be corrected, if I need to corrected, I would like to just quickly read my understanding of § 215 …
… [~01:58:00] … under § 215 NSA collects phone records …
… [~01:59:00] … Is that a fair description? Or can you correct it in any way?
Gen. Alexander: That is accurate, Senator.
Sen. Feinstein: Thank you.
"collects"
"collects phone records"
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Re: Senate Appropriations: Cybersecurity Hearing
Merkley: Here's my phone. You have my data. What is the legal basis for you storing MY data?
General: Um, I really, uh, want to um, I feel like that would be good information to have...uh.,.but I have to check. I'm not sure if it's safe for me to tell you why. If can't I'll give you summary of why I can't...unless of course that's too dangerous...uh...I just want to make sure I answer this correctly...uh...yeah I will either do that or at the very least in the NOT TELEVISED SESSION tomorrow, I'll give you at least a vague reason why I can't.
Chair: Actually we don't really care, just send him a note that says whatever, okay? Okay Merkley? Will that shut you up?
Merkley: Okay, but my bill....I mean what you're saying seems to suggest that this legal basis should be public. That's what my bill was about. So you would support that?
General: Um...uh..Yeah, I don't know.
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General: False
Collins: Good, I hope we can put that issue to bed then.
...
Well, gosh, I feel better. Finally some straight up honesty.
Wait.
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assassination attemp against a communist watermelon from germany
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