EFF and ACLU Request FISA Court Unseal Its Opinions on Legality of Surveillance Conducted Under FISA Amendments, Patriot Act ~p

Because the President has said he welcomes discussion about the recent NSA surveillance revelations, I thought you'd want to know about a motion EFF brought in FISA court, which is being opposed by the government in a rare public document [PDF] -- relevant, EFF says, to the latest news. And there is also an ACLU motion [PDF] as well, requesting "that this Court unseal its opinions evaluating the meaning, scope, and constitutionality of Section 215 of the Patriot Act."

EFF asked the government for a copy of "any written opinion or order" of the FISA court in which the court held that the surveillance conducted under the FISA Amendments Act (2008 version) "was unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment" or had "circumvented the spirit of the law." After some of the usual back and forth in discovery, the government revealed that it had found one such [!], but it refused to provide it on the grounds that it had no authority under FISC rules "to release FISC opinions to a FOIA requester or any other member of the public without a FISC order." So that's why EFF is now approaching the court itself, asking for a ruling that the government is allowed to provide it. The ACLU asked, and was denied, once before for the same relief it not is asking for, but now, after the latest events and the President's encouragement of public debate saying it's healthy for a democracy, it is renewing its request.

The three filings being public give us a window into the secretive court that we would not otherwise have.