Yesterday, a federal district court granted the government's motion to dismiss our Wikimedia v. NSA case. For those of you familiar with procedural rules, the Judge T.S. Ellis III dismissed the case on standing grounds. What this means is that the court believed that we, along with our co-plaintiffs, were unable to plausibly allege that the NSA is capturing our communications. The ruling did not reach the substance and merits of the case.

We respectfully disagree with the decision and plan on appealing. This was not an unexpected outcome at this point in the litigation, and our counsel at ACLU feel that this is a strong posture for appeal.

We continue to feel that the NSA’s mass surveillance poses a serious threat to privacy, freedom of expression, and freedom of association -- rights that are essential to the Wikimedia movement, rights that we will continue to fight for. We thank the community for all of the support you have shown for this effort throughout this process.

Please see our blog post for more information.