ACLU Sues for Details on Federal Snooping

Michelle Madigan, Medill News Service

WASHINGTON, D.C.-- Civil-liberties and privacy advocates have sued the U.S. Department of Justice, demanding the agency reveal how it has used its expanded surveillance powers since the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court on Thursday. The organization says the Justice Department has ignored a Freedom of Information Act request for documents on the government's implementation of the Patriot Act, signed into law one year ago to combat terrorism.

"They haven't disclosed any documents or told us what documents, if any, they intend to disclose," says Jameel Jaffer, staff attorney for ACLU. "We're hoping the filing of the complaint will encourage the government to comply." The FOIA request was filed in August.

Other groups joining the suit were the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, and the Freedom to Read Foundation.

Facts, Figures Sought

The Patriot Act expanded surveillance techniques from phones to online communications. Police and the FBI can now obtain a pen register order that allows them to retrieve a suspect's accessed URLs and e-mail addresses. Investigators can use a trap-and-trace surveillance technique to record the senders' addresses of a suspect's incoming e-mail, but not its content.

The groups want to know how often the federal government has sought records from libraries, bookstores, or Internet service providers.

"These are very broad new powers, and there is a strong need to have public oversight," says David Sobel, general counsel to EPIC. "There's a year's worth of experience that can be examined."

The Justice Department says the information is classified.

"The government is using the classified stamp too broadly," Jaffer says. The ACLU is not asking for information about ongoing investigations, he adds.

Similar Inquiries

House Judiciary Committee Chair James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisconsin) recently released answers to the committee's own inquiry into the use of the Patriot Act's new powers. He says he is satisfied with the information the Justice Department provided, which was largely anecdotal; the ACLU and EPIC, however, want more.

While their request covers much of the same ground, Sobel says they want statistics as well as changes to law enforcement's policy guidelines.

"We raised [in the complaint] the concerns raised a year ago," Sobel says. "Let's find out if those concerns were justified."

The ACLU also recently launched a campaign trying to raise public awareness of the Patriot Act's powers and implementation. The organization contends the surveillance powers are unnecessarily broad, and lack appropriate oversight.