A unanimous panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a lower court, and held that the statutory and constitutional claims of millions of Americans whose telephone and e-mail communications have been subjected to warrantless surveillance by the National Security Agency as part of a massive secret dragnet program may proceed. In Shubert v. Obama, ECBA represents four individuals and a putative class of individuals who claim their communications were unlawfully intercepted by the federal government, without a warrant or other statutory authorization. ECBA attorney Ilann Maazel argued on behalf of the plaintiffs in Seattle in August 2011, and ECBA attorney Adam Pulver joined Mr. Maazel in writing the briefs.
The Court’s decision is available here.
For more on the opinion, go to: wired.com and latimes.com.