Solicitor General to Respond to EPIC Mandamus Petition
The Solicitor General requested on Friday an extension to file a response to EPIC's Mandamus Petition in In re EPIC. The Court granted the extension, and the Solicitor's response is due on September 11, 2013. In the Mandamus Petition, EPIC argues that the FISA Court exceeded the statutory authority under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act when it authorized bulk collection of American's telephone records. Under Section 215, the FISA Court may order businesses to produce records that are "relevant" to an authorized national security investigation, but the Verizon Order requires production of millions of private records unrelated to any investigation. The Administration recently argued that bulk collection meets the relevance standard, but it has scant legal authority to support that proposition. For more information, see In re EPIC.
August 13, 2013| Share:
