FBI Partially Lifts Gag Order On Nationa Security Letter (NSL) Recipient

From ACLU:

FBI Partially Lifts Gag Order on NSL Recipient

Tell Congress to reject any expansion of the use of NSLs.





We can finally say it: John Doe is Nicholas Merrill. For the first time since the FBI served him with a national security letter (NSL) and placed him under gag more than six years ago, Nick can finally speak out about his experiences as the first person to ever bring a challenge against NSLs.



The ACLU filed a lawsuit challenging the NSL statute and the gag order on behalf of Nick in April 2004, which resulted in numerous court rulings finding the NSL statute unconstitutional.



NSLs are secret record demands the FBI issues to obtain access to personal customer records from internet service providers, libraries, financial institutions and credit reporting agencies without court approval or even suspicion of wrongdoing. Because the FBI can gag NSL recipients to prohibit them from disclosing anything about the record demands they receive, the FBI's use and potential abuse of the NSL power has been shrouded in excessive secrecy. While the NSL served on Merrill stated that he was prohibited from telling anyone about it, he decided to challenge the demand in court because he believed that the FBI was ordering him to turn over constitutionally protected information about one of his clients.



Thanks to Nick's actions, courts have now recognized the need for judicial oversight of the government's dangerous NSL gag power. But while misuse and abuse of the NSL power has been widely documented, Congress has neglected to reform the NSL statute to rein in those abuses and bring it in line with the court rulings in our case. And now, the Obama administration is seeking to expand the statute to allow the FBI to demand even more records without court approval.