A judge has decided Wikimedia has grounds to sue the NSA
A federal appeals court has ruled the Wikimedia Foundation has grounds to sue the NSA, after a district judge ruled against Wikimedia’s case back in 2015. The judge then said the group was unable to prove the NSA was actually illegally spying on its communications. Since information about Upstream, NSA’s targeted surveillance system, is classified, it’s tough to bring the details the judge required.
Now, however, the judge believes Wikimedia Foundation brought enough evidence to the table, specifically that the agency was monitoring its communications.
« To put it simply, Wikimedia has plausibly alleged that its communications travel all of the roads that a communication can take, and that the NSA seizes all of the communications along at least one of those roads. Thus, at least at this stage of the litigation, Wikimedia has standing to sue for a violation of the Fourth Amendment. And, because Wikimedia has self-censored its speech and sometimes forgone electronic communications in response to Upstream surveillance, it also has standing to sue for a violation of the First Amendment, » the appeals court writes.
The lawsuit originally also featured Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, as the ACLU brought the lawsuit on behalf of all. Wikimedia is the only one moving forward.
The NSA’s surveillance programs were revealed thanks to Edward Snowden back in 2013. Although its powers have been somewhat restricted, it hasn’t stopped spying on everyone.
In fact, just recently, it changed its surveillance practices. NSA said it would halt its « about the target » collections because they violate the Fourth Amendment, but the rest of the Upstream program continues to stand. In plain English, NSA would no longer collect domestic messages that have no connection to an investigation. Up until now, they were all just dumped in the same place together.
