Justice Dep't Admits It Lied To Appeals Court about Companies' Ability To Talk About National Sec.

[n2doc]

Back in October, we wrote about the appeal on the legality of National Security Letters (NSLs), which are secretive filings from law enforcement demanding information with a perpetual gag order. In 2013, a district court had declared that NSLs were unconstitutional, but stayed that decision pending appeal. While the appeals court judges seemed skeptical, it still wasn't clear how they would rule. So it's interesting to see that the Justice Department has just admitted that it misled the court on some rather important points during the oral arguments.

In particular, with regards to the First Amendment question, the DOJ had insisted that companies could discuss the "quality" of the NSLs it had received, explaining it this way:

There is a category that the deputy attorney general provided that recipients can make disclosures and there is a category of 0-249 so recipients can disclose that. They’re allowed to disclose within these bands. And they can fully participate in the public debate, they can say as we have disclosed we’re in that band 0-249 and it can say the very things that [EFF Senior Staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl] said they can’t. They can say and we think the government is asking for too much in many of the NSLs we received and we want to talk to our fellow recipients and see if they too have felt that there’s too much and we think Congress ought to do something about that. They can do all of that. There’s nothing that says that they can’t comment, they’re allowed to make specific comments about quantity, there’s absolutely no ban on them commenting on the quality of those they’ve received.

Except that's not true, and it was clearly not true at the time. The EFF asked the DOJ to explain this statement in light of other statements that completely contradicted that claim, and suddenly the DOJ realized that it had been lying to the court on a rather important point. So it has now retracted those comments, claiming they were an "inadvertent misstatement."


more
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20141113/17330429133/justice-department-admits-it-lied-to-appeals-court-concerning-companies-ability-to-talk-about-national-security-letters.shtml

[woo me with science]

1. K&R Add to the constantly growing list of lies

from a corrupt, authoritarian oligarchy that holds only contempt for the mechanisms *and* the people of the democracy it subverted and replaced.

We don't have democracy anymore. That's what the Princeton study showed. Not gridlocked democracy, but united oligarchy. Corporate money floods Washington on both sides of the aisle.

Gridlocked democracy is an illusion carefully sustained through propaganda to keep Americans from figuring out that we have experienced a corporate coup in this country. We don't have democracy anymore; citizens have virtually NO impact on policy anymore, because it is purchased and driven by economic elites. We have united oligarchy, both parties purchased and working toward the same predatory corporate agenda and showing utter contempt for our mechanisms of democracy and the will of the people.

Obama's Justice Dept. lied about mortgage fraud investigations, Inspector General report finds
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024663387

Justice Department's Own Inspector General Confirms: Eric Holder is "Say One Thing and Do Another"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024690769

DOJ lied to Supreme Court about domestic surveillance
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140514/06214727229/doj-still-trying-to-hide-fact-it-flat-out-lied-to-supreme-court-about-domestic-surveillance.shtml

Holder/Obama administration seeks to legalize LYING in response to Freedom of Information requests.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2185303

NSA, DEA lie about spying information, construct false evidence trails against Americans
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1168570

Holder and Obama Dishonesty On Mandatory Minimums, the Drug War and Mass Incarceration
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023492539

Pres. Obama defends Dir. of National Intelligence who lied to Congress.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024425947

Lies upon lies upon lies
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5353985
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5815821

[woo me with science]

2. Kick for shining light on corruption.