Some good news! :)

A.

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com Date: Tue, May 23, 2017 at 3:29 PM Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Update on Wikimedia Foundation v. NSA To: Wikimedia Mailing List wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org

For those who missed it in the 10th footnote, this is the link to spread:

https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/05/23/wikimedia-nsa-appeal-standing/

- d.

On 23 May 2017 at 23:00, James Buatti jbuatti@wikimedia.org wrote:

Hello everybody,

The Foundation is pleased to announce an update in Wikimedia Foundation v. National Security Agency,[1] our challenge to the U.S. National Security Agency’s “Upstream”[2] mass surveillance practices. We filed[3] the suit back in March 2015 to protect the privacy and free expression rights of Wikimedia readers, editors, and contributors. The U.S. government moved to dismiss the case, and in October 2015, the District Court granted that motion.[4] Soon after, we appealed.[5]

This morning, the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals[6] ruled that the Wikimedia Foundation can proceed with the suit. The opinion[7] partially vacated and remanded the District Court ruling, which found that the Wikimedia Foundation and our eight co-plaintiffs lacked legal standing[8] to bring the case. The Fourth Circuit panel vacated this ruling as to the Wikimedia Foundation; two of the judges held that we have established standing, although the other plaintiffs have not. The final judge would have found standing for all the plaintiffs. This means our case can proceed, but not with the other plaintiffs.

This is an important step in the fight against government mass surveillance, and a victory for the privacy and free expression rights of Wikimedia users. We are carefully reviewing the decision, along with our counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)[9] to identify next steps for our case. For the immediate time being, the case has been remanded back to the District Court of Maryland for further proceedings.

We

will keep you posted on the next steps.

For more information, please see today’s blog about the case,[10] as well as our Wikimedia Foundation v. NSA resource page.[11]

Best,

Jim Buatti Legal Counsel

[1] https://policy.wikimedia.org/stopsurveillance/

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upstream_collection

[3] https://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/03/10/wikimedia-v-nsa/

[ https://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/03/10/wikimedia-v-nsa/4] https://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/10/23/wikimedia-v-nsa-lawsuit-dismissal/

[ https://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/03/10/wikimedia-v-nsa/5] https://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/03/10/wikimedia-v-nsa/ https://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/02/17/wikimedia-nsa-appeal-filed/

[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Court_of_ Appeals_for_the_Fourth_Circuit

[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Court_of_ Appeals_for_the_Fourth_Circuit 7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Court_of_ Appeals_for_the_Fourth_Circuit https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/ 73._4th_cir_opinion_5.23.2017.pdf

[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_(law)

[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_Liberties_Union

[10] https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/05/23/wikimedia-nsa-appeal-standing/

[11] https://policy.wikimedia.org/stopsurveillance/

-- James Buatti Legal Counsel Wikimedia Foundation 149 New Montgomery Street, 3rd Floor San Francisco, CA 94105 Jbuatti@wikimedia.org

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