In Re National Security Agency Telecommunications Records Litigation

Cindy Ann Cohn, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Jennifer Lloyd Kelly, Fenwick & West LLP, San Francisco, CA, John Andrew Rogovin, Wiimer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr LLP, Washington, DC, for Interested Party.

VAUGHN R. WALKER, Chief Judge.

Plaintiffs seek an order finding defendants civilly liable to them under section 1810 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act ("FISA"), 50 USC §§ 1801-71 , for eavesdropping on their telephone conversations without a FISA warrant. In the course of lengthy proceedings in this court and the court of appeals, described more fully in the decision that follows, this court determined that: FISA affords civil remedies to "aggrieved persons" who can show they were subjected to warrantless domestic national security surveillance; FISA takes precedence over the state secrets privilege in this case; a prima facie case of unlawful electronic surveillance under FISA requires plaintiffs to present to the court specific facts based on non-classified evidence showing that they are "aggrieved persons"; and plaintiffs have met their burden of establishing their "aggrieved person" status using non-classified evidence. Because defendants denied plaintiffs'…