Under the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act and the Patriot Act, companies such as Google and Verizon are forbidden from releasing any information about FISA court orders they receive, including their very existence. This type of blanket gag order has no place in any properly functioning democracy. Google’s lawyers—by bringing up the First Amendment, and the protections for free speech it contains, in their court filing—are essentially making the same argument.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Jun 2013 16:22:02 +0000