Justice Ginsburg Releases Library Case File, Material Redacted Now Available
Justice Ginsburg’s Oct. 7 in-chambers opinion in this case had been redacted to remove material that was then under seal. The Court has now released an unredacted version of her opinion. The nature of the deletions provides a clear illustration of how closely federal prosecutors were monitoring what could be revealed publicly about this mostly-secret case.
The case began about a year ago when the FBI, in a secret demand to a group later identified as the Library Collection, a consortium of 26 Connecticut libraries, to see patrons’ electronic records. The FBI was using what is called a “National Security Letter,” authorized by the Patriot Act passed after the 9/11 attacks, to find out what readers had been viewing or reading online, supposedly as part of a terrorism investigation. Such a Letter does not require a court’s approval, and the party handed such a letter cannot acknowledge publicly that it received it, or even identify itself. In the Connecticut case, it was later revealed, the FBI was interested in who had used a single computer, believing a terrorist threat had originated on that device.
Direct to Unredacted Opinion (8 pages; PDF)
Source: SCOTUSblog