In Court Today: Fighting Judicial Secrecy in the WikiLeaks Investigation

In another round of the legal battle over the records of Twitter users sought by the government in connection with its WikiLeaks investigation, the ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) are appearing before a federal appeals court in Richmond this morning, arguing that the public has a right to know about secret court orders and other documents related to government efforts to obtain Internet users’ private information without a warrant.

The ACLU and EFF represent Icelandic parliament member Birgitta Jonsdottir. She first learned about the government’s efforts to obtain her information—including her mailing addresses, billing information, email addresses, credit card and bank account numbers, and IP address information (which can show physical location)—after a court order requiring Twitter to provide the information was unsealed. But when Birgitta and others targeted by the Twitter order asked U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady to unseal and publicly list similar court orders sent to other Internet service providers, he refused their requests.

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