GOOD NEWS from the ACLU! From my inbox:

[annabanana]

"With everything happening in the world right now, you might have missed today's incredible news that a federal appeals court reinstated the ACLU's landmark lawsuit challenge to the government's unconstitutional spying law, the FISA Amendments Act.
Your support is what makes victories like this possible. Together, you and the ACLU stand on principle, fight for what we believe in, and never stop working until we win"


Thanks for all that you do for civil liberties,

Anthony D. Romero
Executive Director
ACLU

From: ACLU Communications
Sent: Monday, March 21, 2011 12:46 PM
To: ACLU National Staff
Subject: VICTORY! ACLU Challenge to Bush Wiretapping Law Reinstated

VICTORY! Court Says Plaintiffs Can Challenge Bush Wiretapping Law

In a huge victory for privacy and the rule of law, a federal appeals court today reinstated our landmark lawsuit challenging the FISA Amendments Act (FAA), a statute that gives the executive branch virtually unchecked power to collect Americans' international e-mails and telephone calls.

The ACLU filed the lawsuit on behalf of a broad coalition of attorneys and human rights, labor, legal and media organizations whose work requires them to engage in sensitive and sometimes privileged telephone and e-mail communications with colleagues, clients, journalistic sources, witnesses, experts, foreign government officials and victims of human rights abuses located outside the United States.

A federal district court dismissed the case in August 2009, ruling that the plaintiffs did not have the right to challenge the new surveillance law because they could not prove that their own communications had been monitored under it.

But with the support of law professors, the NYC Bar Association, the Reporters' Committee for Freedom of the Press and many others, we appealed that decision to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

Today, the appeals court reversed the lower court decision, finding that the plaintiffs have standing to challenge the law even though they cannot show to a certainty that the government is acquiring their communications. According to today's ruling, "the FAA has put the plaintiffs in a lose-lose situation: either they can continue to communicate sensitive information electronically and bear a substantial risk of being monitored under a statute they allege to be unconstitutional, or they can incur financial and professional costs to avoid being monitored. Either way, the FAA directly affects them."

In a statement today, ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer said:

"The government's surveillance practices should not be immune from judicial review, and this decision ensures that they won't be. The law we've challenged permits the government to conduct dragnet surveillance of Americans' international communications, and it has none of the safeguards that the Constitution requires. Now that the appeals court has recognized that our clients have the right to challenge the law, we look forward to pressing that challenge in the trial court."


© ACLU, 125 Broad Street, 18th Floor, New York, NY 10004

Every little bit of good news on this front helps....

[xchrom]

1. Recommend

[The Wielding Truth]

2. Good news - for a change.

[ThomCat]

3. It's nice to hear something positive. I hope this succeeds.

[JDPriestly]

4. Best news about the ACLU in quite a while.

Their support of the Citizens United decision is understandable from a strictly intellectual, legal point of view but reprehensible in terms of its impact on rights other than our right of free speech.

[Warpy]

5. I saw that and YES!!!

Those donations really do a lot of good from time to time.

Yes, I am a card carrying ACLU member.

[midnight]

6. K&R

[DirkGently]

7. Good to hear.