Government Can’t Rely on Expired Laws To Withhold Documents on US Spying Tools, EFF To Argue Wednesday
The Electronic Frontier Foundation will urge the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to order the U.S. government to disclose information about its role in facilitating exports of American-made surveillance tools to foreign nations, during a hearing Wednesday at 12:45…
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p.m. PDT at Stanford Law School, an EFF news release said Monday. The hearing is part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Commerce Department, “which denied a request seeking disclosure of export applications for surveillance technologies,” the release said. The Commerce Department has argued it could withhold the documents, citing a 1979 law that expired in 2001, EFF said. A federal judge agreed with EFF in July 2013 and ordered the records be disclosed, but the government appealed the decision, it said. During Wednesday’s hearing, EFF Staff Attorney Mark Rumold will argue that dead laws can’t be used to keep information from the public, the release said.