The UC Berkeley Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic has filed an amicus brief in
Jewel v. NSA—a case alleging and
challenging mass electronic surveillance of Americans by the National Security
Agency (NSA). The brief, which urges
the court to review the legality of the NSA’s domestic
surveillance programs, was filed on behalf of Clinic client People
for the American Way Foundation, a non-partisan,
non-profit citizen organization established to promote and
protect civil and
constitutional rights.
The Jewel case was filed by a group of plaintiffs, represented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), after NSA whistle-blowers revealed that the NSA was actively monitoring the
domestic communications of millions of innocent Americans. The
government has sought to block the suit outright, claiming that litigation
would reveal state secrets and harm the national security—despite the fact
that Congress already created secure procedures for courts to review sensitive evidence in
suits alleging unlawful domestic surveillance. As the Clinic’s brief explains,
the government’s argument goes too far, and “directly contravenes Congress’s
intent and our constitutional system of checks and balances.”
The Clinic’s client, the People For the American Way Foundation, is a
non-partisan, non-profit citizen organization established to promote and
protect civil and constitutional rights, with hundreds of thousands of
activists and members nationwide. One of People for the American Way’s primary
missions is to educate the public on the vital importance of our nation’s
tradition of liberty and freedom, and to defend that tradition through
research, advocacy, outreach, and litigation. Samuelson Clinic student Jose de
Wit worked with supervisor Babak Siavoshy in preparing the brief.
Read the amicus brief here.