2140. The NAACP filed amicus briefs in support of the plaintiffs. Authorized by the Bush Administration in fall 2001, the NSA spying program intercepts vast quantities of international, and some purely domestic, telephone and Internet communications of innocent Americans without court approval. Besides eavesdropping on specific conversations, the NSA program combs through large volumes of phone and Internet traffic in search of patterns that might point to terrorism suspects.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Michigan, allege that the NSA program violates the First and Fourth Amendments of the United States Constitution, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and the principle of the separation of powers. Both lawsuits seek a court order declaring that the NSA program is illegal and ordering its immediate and permanent halt.
As a victim of past surveillance abuse, the NAACP was compelled to support this litigation. As the Church Committee Reports of the 1970s document, the FBI's COINTELPRO (counter intelligence program) had a devastating impact on African American organizations, their leadership and members. For several years, the NAACP, Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the Urban League and other nonviolent, traditional civil rights organizations were targets of government surveillance. The NAACP filed amicus briefs in these cases to prevent such abuses from reoccurring.
The NAACP's brief detailed examples of domestic spying abuse directed against the civil rights movement and its leaders. For instance, the FBI investigated the NAACP for more than twenty years to determine whether the NAACP had been infiltrated by Communists despite the fact that the first year of the investigation revealed that the NAACP avoided Communist activities. Additionally, FBI Field offices were instructed to investigate all civil rights groups and every black student union. The brief details attempts to monitor, intimidate, discredit and threaten law abiding Americans, such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The brief also cites court decisions protecting the right to legal advocacy "on behalf of the rights of members of an unpopular minority," which can be chilled and compromised by domestic surveillance (NAACP v. Button, 371 U.S. 415 (1963)).
The other signers on the amicus briefs are the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Japanese American Citizens League, League of United Latin American Citizens, and United for Peace and Justice.
The District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan granted summary judgment against the United States National Security Agency and imposed a permanent injunction. The NSA appealed. The NAACP and several other organizations filed an amicus brief in support of plaintiffs-appellees/cross appellants. On July 6, 2007, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit dismissed the cases on standing grounds, holding that appellees could not prove with any certainty that their telephone calls and/or emails have been intercepted by the NSA. In addition, the Court of Appeals ruled that any evidence the plaintiffs might use to establish standing is protected by the state secrets doctrine.
View Amicus Brief (.pdf )
View Amicus Brief - 6th Circuit(.pdf )
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