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posted by LaminatorX on Saturday January 31 2015, @10:08PM   Printer-friendly
from the above-the-law dept.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has won its four-year Freedom of Information Act lawsuit over secret legal interpretations of a controversial section of the Patriot Act, including legal analysis of law enforcement and intelligence agency access to census records.

The U.S. Department of Justice today filed a motion to dismiss its appeal of a ruling over legal opinions about Section 215 of the Patriot Act, the controversial provision of law relied on by the NSA to collect the call records of millions of Americans. As a result of the dismissal, the Justice Department will be forced to release a previously undisclosed opinion from the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) concerning access by law enforcement and intelligence agencies to census data under Section 215.

"The public trusts that information disclosed for the census won't wind up in the hands of law enforcement or intelligence agencies," Staff Attorney Mark Rumold said. "The public has a right to know what the Office of Legal Counsel's conclusions were on this topic, and we're happy to have vindicated that important right."

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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 31 2015, @11:29PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 31 2015, @11:29PM (#139920)

    UCLA and EFF are once again the real heroes, fighting for our freedoms.

    For those that whine when they defend the less-than-model-citizens, remember, it is the sex offenders, violent radicals and other criminals for whom the totalitarian laws are first enacted against. Then they are quickly expanded and start to cover "wrong" political parties, thought-crimes and eventually, everyone.

    • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Nerdfest on Sunday February 01 2015, @05:14AM

      by Nerdfest (80) on Sunday February 01 2015, @05:14AM (#139983)

      I'll add that if you can toss a few bucks their way (the EFF, not the sex offenders and violent radicals), they'd appreciate it. They have some nice anti-NSA t-shirts as well.

      Nice to win the case and have the legal opinion disclosed, but will the government actually respect it?

    • (Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Sunday February 01 2015, @05:54AM

      by hemocyanin (186) on Sunday February 01 2015, @05:54AM (#139991) Journal

      Tried modding you up more. Guess that isn't part of the new moderation system.

    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 01 2015, @01:50PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 01 2015, @01:50PM (#140042)

      UCLA is a great school, but I doubt they had a lot to do with this opinion.

      Might you mean ACLU ? (www.aclu.org)

    • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 01 2015, @08:26PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 01 2015, @08:26PM (#140109)

      Whenever a Humble Bundle comes up that supports the EFF I give probably 4x what I normally would and change where it goes to give the EFF at least 75%. I get to support two of my favourite entities at the same time this way :)

      None currently supporting EFF, but https://www.humblebundle.com/ [humblebundle.com]