EFF sues NSA, Ministry of Justice and FBI

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a formal application with the District Court of Northern California, on behalf of a number of individuals and 19 organizations, including religious, human rights and gun owners associations.

The National Security Agency, the Ministry of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation were named as the defendant in the case. They are accused of violating the First, Fourth and Fifth Amendments to the US Constitution and the Patriot Act (Article 215). Additional lawsuits may be filed during the process.

Recently, the Director of National Intelligence of the United States confirmed the authenticity of the FISC (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court) request, through which the intelligence services received information from the mobile operator Verizon about all calls made by network subscribers, including called numbers, information about the time and duration of the call for three months. The authorities also acknowledged that it was only one of many such court requests issued since at least 2006.

In the opinion of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the plaintiffs, whose interests the EFF represents in court, such actions of state bodies infringe upon, in particular, the right of citizens to freedom of assembly and the expression of their political views, guaranteed by the First Amendment. The first amendment prohibits the enactment of laws that violate freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly, and freedom to file complaints.
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EFF lawyers explain why they decided to concentrate primarily on freedom of assembly. The fact is that the analysis of metadata from the cellular network makes it trivial to observe any public organizations. Agents can see who the members of the organization call - and make a list of all people connected to each other. At the same time, it is known that the effect of observation by state bodies over the actions of a public organization adversely affects this organization. Thus, there is a violation of the First Amendment.

The legal basis for this case is well studied and looks reliable. It is based on the precedent of 1958, when the US Supreme Court recognized as a violation of the First Amendment the requirement to submit a list of members of a public organization. This thesis was repeatedly used in other lawsuits in subsequent years.

This lawsuit was specifically filed in Northern California court. It is here that the NSA process of tapping the AT & T operator’s subscribers has been going on for five years, including by picking data from AT & T fiber optic cables. In this case, the EFF represents the interests of a number of citizens, customers of the AT & T operator.