Twitter's lawsuit against the US Department of Justice (DOJ) over surveillance may not need to proceed following the recent passage of the USA Freedom Act, a US judge said in an order yesterday.
US district judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in California is hearing Twitter's lawsuit seeking permission to publicly disclose more information about requests from US authorities for information about its users.
Gonzalez Rogers asked both sides for more arguments about whether the case should proceed.
Representatives for Twitter and the US Department of Justice could not immediately be reached for comment.
Twitter sued the DOJ last year, intensifying its battle with federal agencies as the Internet industry's self-described champion of free speech sought the right to reveal the extent of US government surveillance.
In the lawsuit, filed in US District Court for Northern California, Twitter said the DOJ would not even allow the company to state it has not received any national security requests for user information.
The messaging service said such restrictions violate the Constitution's First Amendment guarantee of free speech.
President Barack Obama signed the USA Freedom Act earlier this month, which reformed a government surveillance programme that swept up millions of Americans' telephone records. In court filings, the Justice Department argued it also enacts a new legal process to disclose information about surveillance requests.
Twitter disputed the recent law should impact current proceedings in the case. However, the judge said it goes to the "heart" of Twitter's lawsuit.
"Indeed, the court is concerned the new legislation moots the claims for relief in Twitter's complaint," Gonzalez Rogers wrote yesterday.
Share