EFF: US Gov't Bid To Alter Court Record in Jewel v. NSA 78
The EFF is only today able to release details of an attempt by the government to alter the historical record in the case brought by the EFF against the NSA in Jewel v. NSA. "On June 6, the court held a long hearing in Jewel in a crowded, open courtroom, widely covered by the press. We were even on the local TV news on two stations. At the end, the Judge ordered both sides to request a transcript since he ordered us to do additional briefing. But when it was over, the government secretly, and surprisingly sought permission to "remove" classified information from the transcript, and even indicated that it wanted to do so secretly, so the public could never even know that they had done so." As you'd expect of the EFF, they fought back with vigorous objections, and in the end the government did not get its way, instead deciding that it hadn't given away any classified information after all.
"The transcript of a court proceeding is the historical record of that event, what will exist and inform the public long after the persons involved are gone. The government's attempt to change this history was unprecedented. We could find no example of where a court had granted such a remedy or even where such a request had been made. This was another example of the government's attempt to shroud in secrecy both its own actions, as well as the challenges to those actions. We are pleased that the record of this attempt is now public. But should the situation recur, we will fight it as hard as we did this time."
Re:Duh! (Score:5, Interesting)
A good judge would take action against the prosecutors for any number of varying reasons, and the one that I would pick would be: vexation.
POTUS Obama's hand is in the cookie jar...Again (Score:1, Interesting)
Obama's Regime does this grab and release with information on a regular basis.
How many other times does this Administration get away with suddenly classifying information and then lose in court. And, just as suddenly, the information actually contains no classified information.
Re:1984 (Score:3, Interesting)
That would of course hint that before you get to 1984 that Fahrenheit 451 will be required. After all, digital documents served on demand are much more believeable if those pesky paper documents, with potentially contrary evidence aren't stored somewhere.
We are at war with ($1) we have always been at war with ($1).
Now you know more about why the government is so eager to help copyright move to just allowing the public a short term lease when they make a purchase. Watch it become a requirement where your computer has to make sure that every document you open is currently licensed for your use before opening though it may need updating before you can open it.
Political Correctness
Scientific Correctness
ETC?
Re:POTUS Obama's hand is in the cookie jar...Again (Score:5, Interesting)
My favorite example of government overreach was:
"The danger to political dissent is acute where the Government attempts to act under so vague a concept as the power to protect 'domestic security.' Given the difficulty of defining the domestic security interest, the danger of abuse in acting to protect that interest becomes apparent."
-- Redacted from a US Supreme Court document by the Ashcroft
Justice Department in the name of national security.