FBI drops national security letters in face of lawsuits

By Michael Fraase

Wednesday, 14 May 2008 08:16PM CST

Section: Privacy

National security lettersOne of the more disturbing tactics of the Bush administration’s methodical erosion of the US citizenry’s civil liberties is the use of national security letters, secret administrative orders demanding personal and behavioral information that are not subject to judicial approval. The FBI issues around 50,000 national security letters each year. Recipients of national security letters are forbidden from disclosing anything about the order, including its very existence.

Nice trick. The administration uses this tactic to obtain calling information, online usage patterns, and similar information from telephone companies and internet service providers.

Last November, the FBI served such an order on the Internet Archive in an attempt to obtain information about one of the archive’s patrons. But the Internet Archive used a provision of the reauthorized USA Patriot Act—a provision that exempts libraries—to challenge the order. More importantly, the Internet Archive also alleged that the disclosure restriction was unconstitutional.

The FBI, wanting no part of a potential ruling that would limit the disclosure restriction, dropped the gag order. Earlier this month the case documents were unsealed.

Melissa Goodman, an ACLU attorney, told the Washington Post‘s Ellen Nakashima that the FBI has similarly backed down whenever a national security letter has been challenged in court. “That calls into question how much the FBI needed the information in the first place, and finally, whether the FBI needs this kind of sweeping and unchecked surveillance power.”

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