Privacy advocates and the government faced off in...

Privacy advocates and the government faced off in oral argument Wednesday before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco. The case, Under Seal v. Eric Holder, Jr., was on the National Security Letter authority that the FBI uses in the course of government surveillance. Electronic Frontier Foundation Senior Staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl argued to limit the authority -- he “will urge a federal appeals court today to uphold a groundbreaking ruling that the National Security Letter (NSL) provisions of the USA Patriot Act are unconstitutional,” an EFF media advisory said (http://bit.ly/1rXAxFb). EFF initially predicted that audio from the oral argument would be streamed live, but it was not. EFF was told audio would be available later, it said. The judges were Sandra Ikuta, Mary Murguia and N.R. Smith.