Feds Agree To Release Redacted Interpretation Of PATRIOT Act That A Month Ago It Said Could Not Be Revealed
from the ch-ch-changes dept
A month ago, we wrote about how the DOJ had told the FISA Court (FISC) that even though the court had said that its own rulings, which secretly interpreted the PATRIOT Act to allow for the bulk collection of certain information under Section 215 of the act, should be declassified in the wake of all the Snowden revelations, the DOJ had determined that it didn't want to release the ruling. Let's repeat the details here: (1) FISA Court issues secret ruling that totally reinterprets Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act in a manner that appears to be quite different than any plain language reading. (2) Snowden leaks a bunch of documents that reveal the existence of certain bulk data collection which has everyone up in arms. (3) FISA Court itself says that more information is a good thing for debate, and that it would like to release the ruling in question, asking the DOJ to do some redactions as necessary. (4) The DOJ says, well, given the choice, we'd just as soon redact the whole damn thing. (5) The FISA Court says, "Come again? You need to explain that some more."Then, late on Friday, when the DOJ had to give its more detailed explanations, it suddenly reversed its position. It now says that it will drop its objection to the ruling being published, though there will be redactions. The DOJ claims that its initial reaction wasn't just to hide the full ruling, but that there's an ongoing investigation that it involves:
In its latest filing, the Justice Department explained the reason for its initial reluctance to have the opinion published: It relates to the subject of an FBI counterterrorism investigation. Some information in the opinion could tip off the subject or his associates, the Justice Department said.Of course, this suggests that their initial response, trying to block the release of any part of the decision was the typical kneejerk reaction of government officials to "well, keep this secret."
"However, upon review and as a discretionary matter," the government said, it decided to drop its objection to the court publishing parts of the opinion, as long as they're not classified and don't jeopardize the investigation.
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Filed Under: doj, fisa court, fisc, patriot act, secret interpretation, section 215
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and remember who started this shit, people!
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Regardless, there has to be some discretion towards ongoing investigations. It never excuse a complete refusal of releasing a judicial document, but it does warrent some discretion for redacting sensitive information.
If they black out that much, well, either the people responsible for the redactions are incompetent or they are essentially still refusing to comply in which case a shitstorm is brewing from more than one side. Either way it is impossible to predict the future. Let's not get too carried away.
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In the end, you'll get pages of blackness, and a continuation of same said behavior.
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So a law applied to everyone has to be hidden to stop 1 person from being tipped off?
Or more likely people will see what they were doing and get very angry.
I really hope it is the latter and not the former, because if we are wasting time creating secret versions of laws to target 1 person it should piss the public off even more.
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If all they had to put into a court opinion of that magnitude was concerning an ongoing investigation, it kind of tips you off that they don't have any real results from completed investigations, now doesn't it?
Makes we want to move to Bulgaria, where they can't afford this kind of insanity. Good old fashioned rifle butts, that's the ticket!
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The blacked out(redacted) parts are the official space bar of the NSA™ ..
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Foloowing Court Orders is Optional
Ah, so as "a discretionary matter" they might consider following the court order. Not they have to, mind you, but just voluntarily, if the mood hits them to do so.
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I think is clearly NSAese for "You will get nothing but fully redacted text.".
The parts that are not classified, are the page numbers.
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