High Court Won't Hear EPIC's Appeal To Get DHS Cellphone Shutdown Operating Procedure Docs
The Supreme Court declined to hear the Electronic Privacy Information Center's appeal to get Department of Homeland Security records about its policy for shutting down cellphone service, the privacy group said Monday on its website. It said the high court…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
let stand an appeals court ruling issued last February, which overturned the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia's decision in November 2013 that sided with EPIC. Part of the reason EPIC said it sought the records stems from a 2011 incident in which Bay Area Rapid Transit officials in San Francisco shut down cell service inside several stations during a second protest involving the shooting and death of a homeless man by a BART officer. The privacy group submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to DHS in July 2012 for standard operating procedure documents for cellular service shutdowns and other related information. DHS denied the request in August 2012, prompting EPIC to file a lawsuit in February 2013. The group, which said it obtained a redacted version of the federal government's shutdown policy, said the appeals court ruling interprets FOIA exemptions "so broadly that it threatens to conceal" federal agency records from public access due to concerns about security procedures.