Legal Commentary

FBI Uses More National Security Letters, Obama Admin. Won't Appeal Limits On Gag Orders

By TChris

The FBI substantially increased its reliance on national security letters last year.

FISA-court authorizations for national security and counter-terrorism wiretaps dropped last year by almost 300, a new Justice Department report to Congress shows. But the FBI’s use of “national security letters” to get information on Americans without a court order increased dramatically, from 16,804 in 2007 to 24,744 in 2008.

National security letters permit the government to demand records from banks, telephone companies, internet service providers, and other businesses without seeking court approval. [more ...]

The issuance of national security letters slowed in 2007 as reports of widespread abuses surfaced. The FBI picked up the pace last year despite uncertainty about the effectiveness of the FBI's corrective actions.

This is still much lower than the number of NSLs issued in 2006 — more than 49,000 — but indicates that the FBI’s reliance on the self-authorized subpoenas is rebounding, after audits in 2006 and 2007 revealed the bureau had been abusing the tool.

The Patriot Act permits the FBI to order the recipient of a national security letter not to reveal the request or the disclosure. That meant the FBI could grab your bank records and prohibit your bank from telling you about it, again without asking a judge for approval.

In a happy development, the Obama administration opted not to seek Supreme Court review of an appellate decision that requires such a "gag order" to be approved by a judge. The decision requires the government to meet a standard that is more sensitive to the First Amendment than the Patriot Act's standard.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on May 20, 2009 (boomark / email).