Landmark Lawsuit Filed to Challenge National Security Letter StatuteMatt Zimmerman EFF is today releasing FBI-redacted briefing from a major new ongoing case in which it is challenging one of the NSL statutes on behalf of a telecommunications company that received an NSL in 2011. Not only does this briefing show that the Department of Justice continues to strongly protect the FBIs NSL authority, it highlights a startlingly aggressive new tactic used by the Department of Justice: suing NSL recipients who challenge the FBIs authority, arguing that court challenges to such authority themselves amount to breaking the law. National security letter statutes five in all are controversial laws that allow the FBI to easily bypass courts and issue administrative letters on their own authority to telecommunications companies and financial institutions demanding information about their customers. EFF brought its challenge on behalf of its client in May of 2011, raising these and other fundamental due process and First Amendment concerns about the structure of these problematic statutes. In response, the Department of Justice promptly filed a civil complaintagainst the recipient, alleging that by stat[ing] its objection to compliance with the provisions of the NSL by exercis[ing] its rights under the NSL statute to challenge the NSLs legality, the recipient was interfer[ing] with the United States vindication of its sovereign interests in law enforcement, counterintelligence, and protecting national security. You can support this information by voting on Reddit HERE linkwithin_text=Related Articles: 