Judge Grants EFF Right To Investigate NSAs Illegal Surveillance of AmericansBy Brianna Acuesta In the case,Jewel v. NSA, the EFF is representing ATT customers against the NSA in order to stop the dragnet surveillance they have been involved in with users communications records. Dragnet surveillance means that although the NSA may be attempting to search one person within a general area or group of people, the entire group inherently gets searched for incriminating evidence in the process. This practice, in a number of forms, has been deemed unconstitutional time and time again because it is recognized as unreasonable search and seizure. This is a huge step in the right direction, as information revealed in the investigation could show the unlawful practices that the NSA and other intelligence agencies have been using against American citizens for years. Evidence gathered against the NSA so far, before the EFF was even allowed to investigate their actual records, includes documents from a former ATT telecommunications technician showing ATT routing copies of records to a secret room run by the NSA, testimony from three NSA whistleblowers, and documents regarding the upstream collection of communications from fiber optic cables. Previously, the government had barred the EFF from investigating how the programs to collect data from Americans worked within the NSA, arguing that the state secrets privilege protected the NSA from discovery and exposure. Though the case was at risk of being dismissed, a federal court heard the matter and rejected the state secrets claim and ruled that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act could be properly used to litigate any classified documents. Americans still have a long way to go before regaining their right to privacy, but this is a landmark decision that will get them on the right path. This article (Judge Grants EFF Right To Investigate NSAs Illegal Surveillance of Americans) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and Trueselfnews.com. 