Jewel V. National Security Agency
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Case4:08-cv-04373-JSW Document285 Filed09/29/14 Page1 of 56 1 JOYCE R. BRANDA Acting Assistant Attorney General 2 JOSEPH H. HUNT 3 Director, Federal Programs Branch 4 ANTHONY J. COPPOLINO Deputy Branch Director 5 JAMES J. GILLIGAN 6 Special Litigation Counsel 7 MARCIA BERMAN Senior Trial Counsel 8 RODNEY PATTON 9 Trial Attorney 10 JULIA BERMAN Trial Attorney 11 U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Division 12 20 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Rm. 6102 Washington, D.C. 20001 13 Phone: (202) 514-3358; Fax: (202) 616-8470 Email: [email protected] 14 Attorneys for the Government Defendants 15 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 16 FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 17 OAKLAND DIVISION _______________________________________ 18 ) ) 19 CAROLYN JEWEL, et al., ) Case No. 4:08-cv-4373-JSW ) 20 ) GOVERNMENT DEFENDANTS’ Plaintiffs, ) OPPOSITION TO PLAINTIFFS’ 21 ) MOTION FOR PARTIAL SUMMARY ) JUDGMENT AND CROSS-MOTION 22 v. ) FOR PARTIAL SUMMARY ) JUDGMENT ON PLAINTIFFS’ 23 ) FOURTH AMENDMENT CLAIM NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY, et al., ) 24 ) Date: October 31 and November 3, 2014 ) Time: 9:00 a.m. 25 Defendants. ) Courtroom 5, Second Floor ) Hon. Jeffrey S. White 26 _______________________________________ ) 27 28 Jewel v. NSA, No. 08-cv-4373-JSW: Gov’t Defs.’ Opp. to Pls.’ Mot. for Partial Summ. Judg. & Cross-Mot. for Partial Summ. Judg. on Pls.’ Fourth Amendment Claim Case4:08-cv-04373-JSW Document285 Filed09/29/14 Page2 of 56 TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................................1 BACKGROUND .............................................................................................................................4 A. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 ..............................................................................................................4 B. Operation of the Section 702 Program and Upstream Collection ............................6 C. Plaintiff’s Motion for Partial Summary Judgment ...................................................7 ARGUMENT .................................................................................................................................11 I. PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION SHOULD BE DENIED AS PROCEDUARLLY IMPROPER........................................................................................................................11 II. NEITHER THE KLEIN AND MARCUS DECLARATIONS NOR THE MEDIA REPORTS CITED BY PLAINTIFFS CONSTITUTE ADMISSIBLE EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT THEIR STANDING OR FOURTH AMENDMENT CLAIMS .....................13 A. The Klein Declaration Is Not Competent Evidence Because It Is Based on Hearsay and Speculation, Rather Than Personal Knowledge ................14 B. The Marcus Declaration Is Not Competent Evidence Because It Offers Improper Opinion Testimony Based on the Inadmissible Klein Declaration ...................................................................................................16 C. Even if the Klein and Marcus Declarations Were Not Based on Speculation and Hearsay, They Could Not Support Plaintiffs’ Current Standing or the Merits of Their Fourth Amendment Claim .....................18 D. The Unsubstantiated Media Reports on Which Plaintiffs Rely Constitute Inadmissible Hearsay, and Are Entitled to no Weight .........................19 III. PLAINTIFFS HAVE NOT ESTABLISHED THEIR STANDING. AND CANNOT DO SO WITHOUT RISK OF GRAVE DAMAGE TO NATIONAL SECURITY ..................................................................................................20 A. Plaintiffs Have Not Carried Their Evidentiary Burden of Establishing their Standing .................................................................................................................20 i Case4:08-cv-04373-JSW Document285 Filed09/29/14 Page3 of 56 B. Even if Plaintiffs Had Presented Admissible Evidence to Support Their Standing, the State Secrets Doctrine Would Still Require Entry of Judgment for the Government on the Standing Issue ........................................................................21 IV. PLAINTIFFS SHOULD BE DENIED SUMMARY JUDGMENT, AND JUDGMENT SHOULD INSTREAD BE AWARDED TO THE GOVERNMENT, ON THE MERITS OF PLAINTIFFS’ FOURTH AMENDMENT CLAIM ..................................................23 A. Plaintiffs’ Claim of a Seizure at “Stage 1” Fails as a Matter of Fact and Law ....23 1. Plaintiffs have presented no admissible evidence that Upstream collection under Section 702 in fact involves the “Stage 1” seizure they allege ..................................................................................................24 2. Even if proven, the alleged “Stage 1” splitting of the Internet communications stream would not constitute a Fourth Amendment seizure as a matter of law ......................................................25 3. No authority cited by Plaintiffs supports their seizure claim .....................29 B. Plaintiffs’ Claim That Alleged “Stage 3” Scanning Constitutes a Search of Communications Not Found To Contain Targeted Selectors Is Also Without Merit ....................................................................................................................31 C. The “Stage 1” Seizure and “Stage 3” Search Alleged by Plaintiffs Fall Within the Fourth Amendment’s “Special Needs” Doctrine and Are Reasonable Under the Totality of the Circumstances ............................................34 1. The challenged surveillance activities do not require the issuance of a warrant upon probable cause because the Government has a “special need” to collect foreign-intelligence information .....................34 2. The challenged “Stage 1” copying and “Stage 3” scanning of Plaintiffs’ unretained communications are reasonable because the interests of national security far outweigh the minimal intrusion on Plaintiffs’ Fourth Amendment interests .................................38 D. Even if Plaintiffs Had Presented Evidence of a Seizure or Search, Not Justified Under the Special Needs Doctrine, Their Fourth Amendment Claim Still Could Not Be Litigated Without National-Security Information Protected by the State Secrets Privilege .....................................................................................................43 CONCLUSION ..............................................................................................................................45 ii Case4:08-cv-04373-JSW Document285 Filed09/29/14 Page4 of 56 TABLE OF AUTHORITIES CASES PAGE(S) Al-Haramain Islamic Found. v. Bush, 507 F.3d 1190 (9th Cir. 2007) ...........................................................................................44 In re Application of the United States of America for a Search Warrant for Contents of Electronic mail [etc.], 645 F. Supp. 2d 1210 (D. Or. 2009) ..........................29 Arizona v. Hicks, 480 U.S. 321 (1987) .....................................................................................................27, 29 Berger v. New York, 388 U.S. 41 (1967) .............................................................................................................36 Board of Educ. of Indep. Sch. Dist. No. 92 of Pottawatomie Cnty. v. Earls, 536 U.S. 822 (2002) .....................................................................................................40, 43 Bras v. Cal. Pub. Utils. Comm'n, 59 F.3d 869 (9th Cir. 1995) .........................................................................................13, 18 Cassidy v. Cherthoff, 471 F.3d 67 (2d Cir. 2006)...........................................................................................37, 43 Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317 (1986) ...............................................................................................13, 20, 21 City of Indianapolis v. Edmond, 531 U.S. 32 (2000) .............................................................................................................35 Clapper v. Amnesty Int'l USA, 133 S. Ct. 1138 (2013) ............................................................................................... passim Courtney v. Canyon Television & Appliance Rental, Inc., 899 F.2d 845 (9th Cir. 1990) .............................................................................................14 DMC Closure Aversion Comm. v. Goia, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 121644 (N.D. Cal. Aug. 29, 2014)...............................................19 De Boer v. Pennington, 206 F.3d 857 (9th Cir. 2000) .............................................................................................25 In re Directives, 551 F.3d 1004 (FISC Ct. Rev. 2008) ......................................................................... passim iii Case4:08-cv-04373-JSW Document285 Filed09/29/14 Page5 of 56 Electronic Frontier Foundation v. Dep't of Justice, 2014 WL 3945646 (N.D. Cal. Aug. 11, 2014) ..................................................................22 Feezor v. Patterson, 896 F. Supp. 2d 895 (E.D. Cal. 2012) ..............................................................................13 Ferguson v. City of Charleston, 532 U.S. 67 (2001) .............................................................................................................35 Florida v. Jardines, 133 S. Ct. 1409 (2013) .................................................................................................30, 31 Griffin v. Wisconsin, 483 U.S. 868 (1987) ...........................................................................................................35