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A national security letter (NSL) is an administrative subpoena issued by the United States federal government to gather information for national security purposes. NSLs do not require prior approval from a judge. The Stored Communications Act, Fair Credit Reporting Act, and Right to Financial Privacy Act authorize the United States federal government to seek such information that is "relevant" to authorized national security investigations. By law, NSLs can request only non-content information, for example, transactional records and phone numbers dialed, but never the content of telephone calls or e-mails.〔(USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005: A Legal Analysis ) Congressional Research Service's report for Congress, Brian T. Yeh, Charles Doyle, December 21, 2006.〕 NSLs typically contain a nondisclosure requirement, frequently called a "gag order", preventing the recipient of an NSL from disclosing that the FBI had requested the information.〔 The nondisclosure order must be authorized by the Director of the FBI, and only after he or she certifies "that otherwise there may result a danger to the national security of the United States, interference with a criminal, counterterrorism, or counterintelligence investigation, interference with diplomatic relations, or danger to the life or physical safety of any person." Even then, the recipient of the NSL may still challenge the nondisclosure order in federal court. The constitutionality of such nondisclosure orders has been repeatedly challenged. The requirement was initially ruled to be unconstitutional as an infringement of free speech in the ''Doe v. Gonzales'' case, but that decision was later vacated in 2008 by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals after it held the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act gave the recipient of an NSL that included a nondisclosure order the right to challenge the nondisclosure order in federal court. In March 2013, district court judge Susan Illston of Federal District Court in San Francisco struck down the law, writing that the prohibition on disclosure of receipt of an NSL made the entire statute impermissibly overbroad under the First Amendment. On August 24, 2015, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the district court's decision and remanded the case back to the district court for further proceedings. ==History== The oldest NSL provisions were created in 1978 as a little-used investigative tool in terrorism and espionage investigations to obtain financial records. Under the Right to Financial Privacy Act (RFPA), part of the Financial Institutions Regulatory and Interest Rate Control Act of 1978), the FBI could obtain the records only if the FBI could first demonstrate the person was a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power. Compliance by the recipient of the NSL was voluntary, and states' consumer privacy laws often allowed financial institutions to decline the requests.〔Andrew E. Nieland, National Security Letters and the Amended Patriot Act, 92 ''Cornell L. Rev.'' 1201, 1207 (2007) ()〕 In 1986, Congress amended RFPA to allow the government to request disclosure of the requested information. In 1986, Congress passed the Stored Communications Act (SCA), part of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986), which created provisions similar to the RFPA that allowed the FBI to issue NSLs. Still, neither act included penalties for failing to comply with the NSL. A 1993 amendment relaxed the restriction regarding "foreign powers" and allowed the use of an NSL to request information about persons not under direct investigation. In 2001, section 505 of the USA PATRIOT Act expanded the use of the NSLs. In March 2006, the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act allowed for judicial review of an NSL. A federal judge could repeal or modify an NSL if the court found the request for information was "unreasonable, oppressive, or otherwise unlawful." The nondisclosure order the government could include in an NSL was also weakened. The court could repeal the nondisclosure order if it found it had been made in bad faith. Other amendments also allowed the recipient of an NSL to inform their attorney about the request and the government had to rely on the courts to enforce compliance with an NSL. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「national security letter」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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