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Phoenix666 [soylentnews.org] writes:

The Supreme Court was asked in a petition [arstechnica.com] to force the government to disclose the US clandestine plan to disable cell service during emergencies.
...
The Electronic Privacy Information Center told the high court's justices Tuesday that the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit's decision created a new "catchall provision that can be used in any case involving records related to domestic and national security programs." (PDF)

The privacy group had demanded the documents from the Department of Homeland Security in 2011 following the shuttering of cell service in the San Francisco Bay Area subway system to quell a protest. The Department of Homeland Security refused to divulge the documents associated with SOP 303, which the appeals court described as a "unified voluntary process for the orderly shut-down and restoration of wireless services during critical emergencies such as the threat of radio-activated improvised explosive devices."

In recent protests in Hong Kong the government shutdown cell service in the area of the protests. The protesters used FireChat [cnn.com] to get around the restrictions.

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