Surveillance court cases delayed due to shutdown

Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook and LinkedIn will have to wait until the shutdown is over to see any movement on their lawsuits against the US government over surveillance transparency.

In a motion to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), the Department of Justice and the companies said they are unable to work on the case during the shutdown and asked the court to postpone a Oct. 21 deadline. The cases center around the five companies' requests to the US government for the ability to tell their users more specific information about the surveillance requests they receive. The Department of Justice cannot discuss the case with the companies because of the shutdown, the motion said. This includes allowing the companies “to access classified information” in the government’s heavily redacted response filed recently. A new deadline will be set once the shutdown ends, FISC Judge Reggie Walton ruled in granting the motion.