Our brief in support of Twitter's lawsuit against the US government for violating the First Amendment
Trevor Timm
February 17, 2015
Yesterday, NYU Technology Law & Policy Clinic filed a legal brief on behalf of Freedom of the Press Foundation in Twitter's important lawsuit against the government for violating their First Amendment rights.
Buoyed by the Snowden disclosures that began eighteen months ago, tech companies like Twitter have been attempting to issue detailed transparency reports describing the surveillance demands they receive from the government and how many users are affected. The government has cynically attempted to censor social media companies by claiming that they are gagged from not only telling the public the number of national security orders they receive, but in some cases, even if they have received zero surveillance orders.
This attempt by the government is a classic prior restraint and a violation of the First Amendment. A variety of organizations, from large tech companies to news organizations and others, have also filed legal briefs in support of Twitter in the case.
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You can read the full brief below. Special thanks to the students who worked on the brief: Megan Briskman, Megan Graham, Matt Callahan, and Rafael Reyneri.