Suit: New Wiretapping Law Illegally Broadens Spying Activity

Thirteen nonprofit groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have filed a New York federal court lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and its recently approved amendments.

The human rights, labor, legal and media organizations are suing Director of National Intelligence John McConnell, U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey and Keith Alexander, who heads the National Security Agency.

The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, says the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 "eviscerates the clear legal standards and effective oversight and controls" that Congress established in 1978 to keep the government from having "virtually unregulated authority" to monitor U.S. citizens' international communications.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 required the government to submit a request for electronic surveillance to a secret court before monitoring any communications.

To obtain an order, the government had to submit a detailed application identifying the surveillance target, giving the reason for suspecting the target of terrorist activity and explaining how it planned to minimize the invasion of privacy.

The plaintiffs say the FISA amendments law, signed by President Bush just hours before they filed suit, "compromises their ability to gather information, represent their clients, and engage in domestic and international advocacy."

They fear their clients' confidentiality will be compromised and their ability to communicate about sensitive and privileged matters necessary to their legitimate professional activities will be negatively affected, according to the suit.

Some of the information the petitioners exchange by telephone and e-mail would constitute "foreign intelligence information" within the meaning of the FISA amendments, the plaintiffs say.

The challenged law allegedly violates the Fourth Amendment because it allows the defendants to wiretap communications without providing the kind of specific reasoning courts previously required and without limitations on the retention, analysis and dissemination of any acquired information.

The law also violates the First Amendment by substantially impairing a broad range of lawful, expressive activity without adequate justification by "authorizing the defendants to collect constitutionally protected communications without meaningful judicial oversight," according to the complaint.

The suit seeks a permanent injunction barring the defendants from conducting surveillance under the authority granted by the FISA amendments law.

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The plaintiffs are represented by Jameel Jaffer, Melissa Goodman and Danielle Tully of the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation and Christopher Dunn and Arthur Eisenberg of the New York Civil Liberties Union, both in New York.