Judge Orders DOJ To Turn Over FISA Surveillance Documents

itwbennett (1594911) writes "In a victory for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which is suing to make the DOJ release information about surveillance on U.S. citizens, a California judge on Friday ordered the Department of Justice to produce 66 pages of documents for her review. The judge said the agency failed to justify keeping the documents secret and she will decide whether the documents, including one opinion and four orders by the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), were improperly withheld from the public."

Comments

So?

[edibobb]

Why would the DOJ obey a court order? The executive branch has been above the constitution since 2000.

OCA

[Anonymous Coward]

I hope she understands what she'll compromise if she releases them, but I doubt it. There's a reason there are very few Original Classification Authorities, and why it's at such a high level of approval to designate something as classified. Here are the instructions for intelligence information. However, to understand how some information in a document will disclose classified information, you have to understand what information contained in it or revealed by it (e.g. by omission) is classified, and who has the authority to determine that. If she has not studied the subject in detail, which is likely, she runs a high risk of compromising information she is unaware is sensitive.

Re:OCA

[cold fjord]

Last I checked, poor people don't have monopolies on TV and Radio shows so so they can attempt to shape society. They don't influence tax code to give themselves more money and screw over those rich guys. They are not paying lobbyists to get favorable laws passed.

Does the ACLU have a minimum income requirement for membership? What about the NRA? The AARP? The Teamsters? The NEA? The Democrats & Republicans? I seem to recall that all of those groups, and many more, all try to influence the laws and regulations that are passed, how they are executed, and the political process in general. They are all made of up many ordinary people that volunteer time and money.

You aren't trying to claim that you have never heard of a law that was the result of a crusade by one ordinary but determined person, are you?

If you are rich and you steal billions you can be sentenced to jail for 150 years like Bernie Madoff, and if you smoke a joint you can walk like in Colorado and a growing number of places.

When did "the rich" develop a monopoly on TV and radio stations? Are you confusing "the rich" with corporations? Is there some group or segment of the population that you think doesn't have at least some radio stations catering to it? Given some of the marginal crank views I hear flipping through the dial that would seem to be some pretty rarified segment.

Who are the rich people that you are apparently claiming are "spending billions of dollars in foreign countries to start civil wars"?

Given the totality of the views that you have expressed, I'm not sure that I'm convinced you are against corruption as a general principle so much as you are against your own government.

Political ideologues aren't simply "always going to be around." Some of them are dangerous and need to be guarded against.