Just this winter, Supreme Court pick Sonia Sotomayor was part of a unanimous court decision that limited the use of the 2001 Patriot Act to silence Internet service providers who are contacted by federal authorities for customer phone and Internet records.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, where Sotomayor serves as a judge, sided, in part, with the American Civil Liberties Union in a lawsuit against then-U.S. Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey. The plaintiffs argued that the FBI's authorities under the act should not be used to forbid providers from speaking out about requests for private subscriber records. The act was passed after the events of Sept. 11 to strengthen law enforcement's powers.
The court found that such so-called "gag orders" are unconstitutional on the grounds that they violate the First Amendment right to free speech.
The court decided nondisclosure demands are permissible if an FBI official can certify that disclosure might result in "enumerated harm" to an anti-terrorism or clandestine intelligence investigation.
Aliya Sternstein
Aliya Sternstein reports on cybersecurity and homeland security systems for Nextgov. She has covered technology for nine years at such publications as National Journal's TechnologyDaily, Federal Computer Week and Forbes. Before joining Government Executive, she covered agriculture and derivatives trading for Congressional Quarterly. She has been a guest commentator on C-SPAN, WTOP and Federal News Radio. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.
Addressing the 3 Biggest BYOD Security Threats
Mobile Apps: New Ways to Connect Government with Citizens
Continuous Monitoring As a Service: A Shift in the Way Government Does Business
sponsored
3 Ways Data is Improving DoD Performance
JOIN THE DISCUSSION
By using this service you agree not to post material that is obscene, harassing, defamatory, or otherwise objectionable. Although Nextgov does not monitor comments posted to this site (and has no obligation to), it reserves the right to delete, edit, or move any material that it deems to be in violation of this rule.