ACLU, EFF Prevail Against FBI National Security Letter

The ACLU and Electronic Frontier Foundation can today reveal their participation in a long fight with the FBI over free speech and government-imposed secrecy.

In November 2007, the FBI delivered a National Security Letter to the Internet Archive, which ordered them to hand over detailed usage logs on several users.

Both the ACLU and EFF fought the legal request, which we argued was unconstitutional. Eventually, the FBI withdrew the letter, and as part of a settlement agreement, unsealed the case and lifted the gag order that prevented all parties from discussing the issue up until now.

Information on the case is just now trickling out. Stay tuned for more details.

National Security Letters have been fought on many fronts by the ACLU. See our National Security Letter webpage for more information about our lawsuits and activities against the NSLs. According to a report by the Justice Department's Inspector General, over 143,000 NSLs were issued between 2003-2005. The same investigative report found repeated abuses of FBI regulations and numerous potential violations of the law.