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For Immediate Release
July, 22 2009, 08:00am EDT
Contact:
ACLU Media, (212) 549-2666 or media@aclu.org
Oral Arguments TODAY in FISA Amendments Act Lawsuit
ACLU in Court to Challenge Unconstitutional Spying Law
NEW YORK
The American Civil Liberties Union will be in court today for oral
arguments in its landmark challenge to the unconstitutional FISA
Amendments Act (FAA), which gives the government virtually unchecked
power to intercept Americans' international e-mails and telephone
calls. The ACLU filed a lawsuit to stop the government from spying
under the FAA less than an hour after the Act was signed into law by
President Bush on July 10, 2008. Recent news reports have indicated
that the National Security Agency has exceeded the already overbroad
limits granted to it under the FAA.
The case was filed on behalf of a
broad coalition of attorneys and human rights, labor, legal and media
organizations whose ability to perform their work - which relies on
confidential communications - is greatly compromised by the law.
Plaintiffs in the case are The Nation
and contributing journalists Naomi Klein and Chris Hedges; defense
attorneys Dan Arshack, David Nevin, Scott McKay and Sylvia Royce; and
Amnesty International USA, Global Rights, Global Fund for Women, Human
Rights Watch, PEN American Center, Service Employees International
Union, Washington Office on Latin America and the International
Criminal Defense Attorneys Association.
WHAT:
Oral arguments in the ACLU's challenge to the unconstitutional FISA Amendments Act of 2008
WHEN:
Today, Wednesday, July 22, 2009
10:00 a.m. EDT
WHERE:
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
Daniel Patrick Moynihan Courthouse, Courtroom 12B
500 Pearl St.
New York, NY 10007
WHO:
Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU
National Security Project, will argue on behalf of the plaintiffs
before Judge John G. Koeltl.
More information about the case,
including the ACLU's complaint, a video discussing the legal challenge
and plaintiff statements in support of the lawsuit, is available online
at: www.aclu.org/faa
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.
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Platner Thanks Small-Dollar Donors After Reporting $4 Million Fundraising Haul in First Quarter
In a video posted online, US Senate candidate Graham Platner read a letter sent by a donor who had enclosed a $35 check for his campaign.
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For the second consecutive quarter, US Senate candidate Graham Platner's campaign reported Wednesday, he's out-raised both his top Democratic primary opponent, Gov. Janet Mills, and Republican Sen. Susan Collins, and the political newcomer emphasized in a video posted online that his fundraising haul has largely been powered by "working people" who "are willing to send what they can to support this campaign."
Platner, a combat veteran and oyster farmer who is running on proposals including Medicare for All and a billionaire minimum tax, read part of a letter from one of the 88,000 supporters who were able to send donations to his campaign in the first quarter of 2026—amounting to a total of $4.1 million.
"My wife and I have very little reserved assets, living now largely on our combined Social Security checks," Platner read. "But I want to make this small gesture of my support for your candidacy. My check for $35 is enclosed. Thank you so much for what you're doing. Keep up the good work. Respectfully, Jim Bishop."
Platner said in the video that his campaign is not taking money from large corporations or super political action committees (PACs), which are able to raise unlimited amounts of money for candidates.
"These are people who are going to miss the money they sent to us," said Platner. "When you spend your time sinking it into just trying to make ends meet, every dollar counts... It actually makes me feel a deep responsibility to not let you down."
Platner has $2.7 million on hand, while Mills brought in $2.6 million and has just over $1 million in the bank.
Collins' seat, the only one held by a Republican in a state won by former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024, is a top target for the Democratic Party as it tries to win back control of the Senate. The senator, whom Platner has attacked over her donations from Wall Street, raised just over $3 million this quarter and has over $10 million on hand. A super PAC that is supporting her, Pine Tree Results, also has more than $11 million, according to Politico.
Platner also led in fundraising in the last quarter of 2025, bringing in $4.6 million in a haul that he said was also powered by donors who gave less than $200. More than $3 million of those funds came from small-dollar contributors—about three times the amount Mills and Collins collected from small donors combined.
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After Mills released an ad regarding comments he made in 2013 about sexual assault, 55% of respondents to an Emerson College poll said they supported Platner, while 28% backed Mills.
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Days after President Donald Trump elicited backlash with an artificially generated image likening himself to Jesus Christ, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth doubled down on the comparison, invoking scripture during a Pentagon press briefing.
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And that posture has seeped into his regular briefings about the war, as it did on Thursday, when he likened reporters covering the war negatively to the “Pharisees,” who dismissed Jesus as a false prophet in the Bible.
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Other reporting from Axios on Thursday revealed that the controversial image was perhaps more deliberate than previously thought, having been discussed with one of his closest advisers, housing finance chief Bill Pulte, shortly before it was posted.
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Hegseth has often used scripture to sanctify "overwhelming violence" against enemies he deems "ungodly." During a Christian service at the Pentagon late last month, he said a prayer for the US military to deliver violence upon those "who deserve no mercy."
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Whatever overtures have been made toward protecting "the innocent," Hegseth's holy war has resulted in more than 1,700 dead civilians in Iran, including more than 250 children, according to the most recent casualty report from the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA). More than 3 million people have been displaced from their homes, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency.
The war that Hegseth suggested the press should be covering positively has been broadly unpopular from the beginning, with 56% of respondents to a Marist poll in early March disapproving of military action.
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A group of two dozen United Nations experts issued a scathing joint statement on Wednesday condemning Israel's ongoing assault on Lebanon as "a blatant violation of the UN Charter, a deliberate destruction of prospects for peace, and an affront to multilateralism and the UN-based international order."
"We are witnessing the continuing utmost contempt for the international legal order, for diplomacy, and above all for the lives of civilians and the environment in Lebanon," the experts said. "Israel has chosen the very moment a ceasefire was announced—one that its Pakistani mediator stated included Lebanon—to unleash the largest coordinated wave of strikes on the country since 1980."
Despite signals in recent days that the Israeli and Lebanese governments are engaged in their highest level of diplomatic talks in decade, Israel's military continues to ferociously bomb southern Lebanon, devastating entire towns—including homes and schools—and killing civilians. On Wednesday, according to Lebanese officials, Israeli forces killed three paramedics in a "triple-tap" airstrike on the town of Mayfadoun.
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“The issuance of blanket evacuation orders, combined with the destruction of urban and village housing that displaced persons would have returned to, is consistent with the pattern of domicide that was initiated during the genocide in Gaza,” the experts continued. "Forced displacement of a civilian population constitutes crimes against humanity and is a war crime under international law."
More than a million people, over a fifth of Lebanon's population, have been displaced since Israel ramped up its assault on the country in early March, claiming to target the political and militant group Hezbollah.
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