Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
Can the FBI force a phone company to turn over its customer records for an investigation?
The question is at the center of a rare civil complaint filed by the U.S. Department of Justice, which claims the phone company was interfering with national security, reports the Wall Street Journal.
The case, which is shrouded in secrecy, is expected to answer important questions about the USA Patriot Act.
“This is the most important national-security-letter case” in years, Stephen Vladeck, a professor and expert on terrorism law at the American University Washington College of Law, told the Wall Street Journal. “It raises a question Congress has been trying to answer: How do you protect the First Amendment rights of an NSL (national security letter) recipient at the same time as you protect the government’s interest in secrecy?”
