Overview
In an opinion issued earlier today, Judge Pauley denied a FOIA request by the New York Times and ACLU for a classified report to Congress about how the government has used a provision of the Patriot Act authorizing the government, by applying the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, to obtain "any tangible things" relevant to terrorism investigations. Judge Pauley's ruling was largely based on evidence reviewed in camera, which led Judge Pauley to conclude: "[T]his Court credits the Government's assertion that disclosing this information could enable America's adversaries to develop means to degrade and evade the nation's foreign intelligence collection capabilities." The lawsuit was supported by Senators Wyden and Udall, who have access to the classified information and who wrote the Justice Department to urge its release. The Senators' letter states that there is a "significant gap between what most Americans think the law allows and what the government secretly claims the law allows."
