Cybersecurity » Appeals Court Reopens Gov’t Surveillance Lawsuit

Appeals Court Reopens Gov’t Surveillance Lawsuit

May 24, 2017

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A three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that the Wikimedia Foundation may revive its legal challenge to the National Security Agency’s program of massive online surveillance. Wikimedia, which hosts the Wikipedia online encyclopedia, filed the lawsuit after leaks by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden exposed “Upstream,” the large-scale surveillance program. Wikipedia argued that the surveillance violated their rights to privacy, free expression and association. In 2015, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III dismissed the suit, ruling that there was a lack of evidence to suggest the NSA was conducting surveillance “at full throttle.” But in this week’s ruling, Circuit Judge Albert Diaz wrote that the Fourth Circuit found the NSA interception was “an invasion of a legally protected interest – the Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.”

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