First Amendment Groups Press Supreme Court For Access To Surveillance Court Opinions wcbe.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wcbe.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Alex Brandon/AP
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Ted Olson, the former Bush-era solicitor general, is part of a coalition of First Amendment groups asking the Supreme Court to review decisions of the intelligence courts. Alex Brandon/AP
First Amendment groups are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to make public major decisions authorizing government surveillance, opinions that until now have remained almost secret.
For years, the ACLU and other groups have maintained that the public has a First Amendment right to see major decisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, decisions that authorize everything from surveillance of suspected spies and terrorists to metadata mining aimed at ferreting out potential terrorist plots, including those that involve contacts between foreigners and American citizens.
Supreme Court asked to give access to secretive court s work
MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press
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1of3FILE - In this Sept. 7, 2018 file photo, then former Solicitor General Theodore Olson testifies on a panel of experts and character witnesses before the Senate Judiciary Committee on behalf of President Donald Trump s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on the final day of the confirmation hearing, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Civil liberties groups are asking the Supreme Court to give the public access to opinions of the secretive court that reviews bulk email collection, warrantless internet searches and other government surveillance programs. The groups say in an appeal filed with the high court Monday that the public has a constitutional right to see significant opinions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The appeal was filed by Theodore Olson on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Knight First Amendment Institut
Supreme Court asked to make foreign intelligence court opinions public
The ACLU and other groups asked the Supreme Court on Monday to consider whether a special court that reviews government requests for electronic surveillance for foreign intelligence purposes must disclose significant opinions that came after 9/11.
The filing marks the first time the Supreme Court has been asked to resolve whether the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court must make its secret opinions public subject to redactions.
The groups, which also include the Knight Institute and the Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic at Yale Law School, are represented by former George W. Bush Solicitor General Theodore R. Olson.