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A project of Common Dreams

For Immediate Release
Contact:

Josh Bell, ACLU, (212) 549-2508 or 2666; media@aclu.org

Federal Appeals Court Allows ACLU Challenge to Warrantless Wiretapping Law to Proceed

Decision to Deny Rehearing Upholds Ruling That Plaintiffs Have Standing to Challenge FISA Amendments Act

NEW YORK

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit today denied the government's request that all of the court's judges rehear a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union challenging the FISA Amendments Act (FAA), a law that gives the executive branch virtually unchecked power to collect Americans' international emails and telephone calls. In March, a three-judge panel of the court unanimously ruled the plaintiffs have the right to challenge the constitutionality of the law.

ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer said, "The government's surveillance practices should not be immune from judicial review, and this decision ensures that they won't be. The law we've challenged permits the government to conduct dragnet surveillance of Americans' international communications, and it has none of the safeguards that the Constitution requires. Now that the appeals court has reaffirmed that our clients have the right to challenge the law, we look forward to pressing that challenge in the trial court."

In his opinion concurring with the denial of rehearing en banc, Judge Gerard E. Lynch wrote, "It is the glory of our system that even our elected leaders must defend the legality of their conduct when challenged. Short-circuiting that process risks not only that we will be governed by unconstitutional laws, but also that legitimate exercises of the lawmaking power will exist under a cloud, undispelled by the light of objective reasoning."

More information about the ACLU lawsuit challenging the FAA is available at:

www.aclu.org/national-security/amnesty-et-al-v-clapper

The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920 and is our nation's guardian of liberty. The ACLU works in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.

(212) 549-2666