The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the federal government, alleging a variety of agencies have failed to properly provide documents that would reveal the scope of surveillance activities on Americans’ overseas telephone calls.
The suit, filed in federal court in Manhattan, charges the National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of Defense, the Department of Justice and the Department of State with failing to uphold several Freedom of Information Act requests for surveillance-tied documents, Politico reported.
The ACLU is requesting in the court order for the agencies to give up the documents. Lawyers for the civil rights group think the documents will reveal just how the government goes about deciding which calls placed by Americans to overseas’ parties to monitor — and which to ignore, Politico reported.
The ACLU also seeks to learn what specific protections the government takes to ensure Americans’ civil rights aren’t trampled in the name of national security.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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