Electronic Frontier v. Office of the Director

JEFFREY S. WHITE, District Judge.

Before the Court is the motion for a preliminary injunction filed by Plaintiff Electronic Frontier Foundation ("Plaintiff). Having considered the parties' pleadings, the relevant legal authority, and having had the benefit of oral argument, the Court hereby GRANTS Plaintiffs motion for a preliminary injunction.

On August 5, 2007, President Bush signed into law the Protect America Act of 2007, which amended the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act ("FISA") to expand the government's authority to gather intelligence with the help of domestic communications service providers, and to protect telecommunications companies from future legal liability for their role in the surveillance activity. Pub.L. No. 110-55, 121 Stat. 552.

The Protect America Act was set to expire in February 2008 without further congressional action. President Bush indicated that the Administration would push for more extensive, and likely retroactive, legal immunity for the telecommunications companies. (Declaration of Marcia Hofmann ("Hofmann Deck"), Ex. F.) Since the time of the passage of the Protect America Act, Congress has continued to consider additional changes to…