To everyone’s great disappointment, the Ninth Circuit decided at the last minute that it would not livestream oral arguments in EFF’s case about National Security Letters. If you were on Twitter, you had some great live-tweeting going on. Audio of the hearing was made available last night on the court’s website.
Maria Dinzeo of Courthouse News provides a write-up of the hearing:
National-security linked gag orders have largely kept telecoms and Internet service providers out of the debate on government intrusion into the lives of private citizens, but the nonprofit group representing those companies urged the 9th Circuit on Wednesday to let its clients start talking.
Lawyers for the government and the Electronic Frontier Foundation fought before a three-judge panel over the constitutionality of a part of the Patriot Act that allows the FBI to demand that ISPs and telecommunication companies give it information on their customers.
Read more on Courthouse News.