The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the U.S. Supreme Court asking the justices to uphold a lower court’s ruling giving media, legal and other parties standing to challenge amendments to FISA that could irreparably damage reporter-source relationships.
At issue in Clapper et. al. v. Amnesty International USA is whether the plaintiffs can demonstrate enough harm to sue the federal government over amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that would allow the government to monitor international communications even if one party is in the United States.
The trial court ruled that the plaintiffs could not prove they were harmed, and thus did not have standing to challenge the amendments. The U.S. Court of Appeals in New York City (2nd Cir.) reversed that decision, and now the U.S. Supreme Court has said it will consider the case.
The Reporters Committee brief is on its website.