FBI ISP Letters May Have Violated Free Speech

Slashdot mentions a Reuters account of an appeals court hearing in which an unnamed ISP is challenging a Patriot Act provision that allows the FBI to produce secret letters to ISPs and telecoms demanding customer records.

A panel of three judges form the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments on whether a provision of the Patriot Act requiring people formally contacted by the FBI for information to keep it a secret, is constitutional.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a similar suit in 2004 against the U.S. government challenging the so-called National Security Letters (NSL) as well as gag orders placed on the recipients.

You can't tell me that any terrorist is going to make anything out of the fact you issued NSLs to AT&T and Verizon," said Circuit Judge Sonia Sotomayor, using a hypothetical example.

Nearly 200,000 national security letters were sent out between 2003 and 2006. Of those, approximately 97 percent also received gag orders.

The judges will rule on the issue in the next few months.

For more information, see Reuters.