National security law

National Security Letters are now constitutional, judge rules

A judge who in 2013 declared that National Security Letters (NSLs) were unconstitutional has now changed her mind in an unsealed ruling made public Thursday.

Federal investigators issue tens of thousands of NSLs each year to banks, ISPs, car dealers, insurance companies, doctors, and others. The letters, which demand personal information, don't need a judge's signature and come with a gag to the recipient that forbids the disclosure of the NSL to the public or the target.

The NSL brouhaha strangely isn't even about the Fourth Amendment right to privacy, as the courts have generally stated that the information sought in the letters is a business record not protected by the Constitution. Instead, the legal fight is about the First Amendment. 

US District Judge Susan Illston ruled three years ago that NSLs were an unconstitutional infringement of speech. But following her ruling, the law was changed to allow the recipients of the letters in certain and very limited circumstances to disclose their existence—albeit with numerous caveats. The law's change "cures the deficiencies previously identified by this Court," Illston wrote.