FBI's “National Security Letters” Threaten Online Speech and Privacy

NSLs are secret subpoenas for communications logs, issued
directly by the FBI without any judicial oversight.  These secret
subpoenas allow the FBI to demand that online service providers produce
records of where their customers go on the Web, as well as what they
read and with whom they exchange email.  The FBI can easily issue
NSLs for information about people who haven't committed any crimes.



A federal district court has already found NSLs unconstitutional,
and the government is now appealing the case.  In its brief to the
Second Circuit Court of Appeals, EFF argues that these secret subpoenas
imperil free speech by allowing the FBI to track people's online
activities.  In addition, NSLs violate the First and Fourth
Amendment rights of the service providers who receive the secret
government demands.  EFF and fellow amici argue that NSLs for
Internet logs should be subject to the same strict judicial scrutiny
applied to other subpoenas that may reveal information about the
identities of anonymous speakers – or their private reading habits and
personal associations.



Yet NSLs
are practically immune to judicial review.  They are accompanied
by gag orders that allow no exception for talking to lawyers and
provide no effective opportunity for the recipients to challenge them
in court.  This secret subpoena authority, which was expanded by
the USA PATRIOT Act, could be applied to nearly any online service provider for practically any type of record, without a court ever knowing.



“The
Constitution does not allow the FBI to secretly demand logs about
Internet users' web browsing and email history based on vague claims of
national security,” said Kevin Bankston, EFF attorney and Equal Justice
Works/Bruce J. Ennis Fellow.  “The district court's decision that
National Security Letters are unconstitutional should have been a
wake-up call to the House of Representatives, which just voted to renew
the PATRIOT Act without adding new checks against abuse.”



Although
such protections are lacking in the PATRIOT renewal bill that the House
of Representatives recently passed, they are included in the Senate
bill.  It is not yet clear whether those protections will be
included in the final bill when it reaches [Bush]'s desk.



EFF was
joined on the brief by the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Center
for Democracy and Technology, the Online Policy Group, Salon Media
Group, Inc., Six Apart, Ltd., the US Internet Industry Association, and
ZipLip, Inc.



(Source)



For the amicus brief:

http://www.eff.org/patriot/NSL_EFF_brief.pdf



More about NSLs:

http://www.eff.org/patriot/sunset/505.php