A.C.L.U. Asks Supreme Court to Let It Seek Secret Surveillance Court Rulings
A prominent Republican Ted Olson backed the request for high court review of a spy court ruling, which would be the first of its kind.
Theodore B. Olson, a solicitor general during President George W. Bush’s administration, previously defended part of a surveillance law Congress enacted after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.Credit.Saul Loeb/Agence France-Presse Getty Images
April 19, 2021, 12:14 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON The American Civil Liberties Union asked the Supreme Court on Monday to unlock the doors to the nation’s foreign intelligence wiretapping court, arguing that Americans have a First Amendment right to ask its judges to disclose secret rulings affecting their privacy.
WASHINGTON – A group of First Amendment advocates is asking the Supreme Court to make public the major opinions of the secret court that authorizes government surveillance, bringing the issue before the nation s highest court for the first time.
The American Civil Liberties Union and others have for years asserted the public has a First Amendment right to review major opinions from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court – such as those that include interpretations of the Constitution – even if some portion of those opinions must be redacted.
The groups are appealing a decision last fall by a higher court that reviews the surveillance court s opinions. That entity found it did not have the authority to review the groups First Amendment claims. The Supreme Court has long interpreted the First Amendment to mean that Americans should be able to review court proceedings.
First Amendment Lawyers Fight in Supreme Court for Public Access to Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court Rulings Adam Klasfeld
Civil liberties groups joined forces with
George W. Bush’s former solicitor general in petitioning the Supreme Court for transparency over one of the few corners of the U.S. judiciary associated with covert operations: the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) and the appellate jurisdiction reviewing its denials, the FISCR.
“Public access to these opinions is critical to the legitimacy of the FISC and FISCR, to the legitimacy of the government’s surveillance activities, and to the democratic process,” Bush’s former solicitor general
POLITICO
There’s a Big Gap in Our Cyber Defenses. Here’s How to Close It.
Foreign adversaries who use U.S. servers are hiding in plain sight, but we can unveil them without violating the Constitution.
Cyber Defense Exercise, 2013 | U.S. Army photo by Mike Strasser/USMA PAO
By GLENN S. GERSTELL
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Glenn S. Gerstell served as general counsel of the National Security Agency from 2015 to 2020. He is currently a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic & International Studies.
The foreign hackers behind the massive cybersecurity failures dominating recent headlines had one critical strategy in common – they leased computers in the United States to burrow into their victim’s networks. Because U.S. cybersecurity systems don’t regard domestic connections as inherently suspect, the attackers were able to hide in plain sight. Like secretive investors deploying a series of shell companies and trusts to mask true ownership, Russia, China and other sophisticated nation
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