District court judge Susan Illston has rejected Google's argument that National Security Letters (NSLs) violated its constitutional rights, and ordered Google to hand over private information relating to US citizens. This ruling is brought to you by the same judge who previously ruled that the requests were unconstitutional.



The Guardian explains the previous ruling by stating; it comes despite Illston earlier ruling the letters unconstitutional in a separate case in March. In that case, brought by non-profit advocacy group the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the judge said that such demands violated the right to free speech.

In this case Google argued that 19 NSLs it has received from the FBI are unconstitutional and should be dismissed. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston dismissed 17 of Google's challenges because she considered the company's arguments too vague and because the constitutionality of NSLs are being decided in a separate ongoing case. She reserved judgement on two others until the government provided more information about them.

Below you will find the amended order granting cross-petition to enforce.

The judge put the Google ruling on hold until the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals can decide the matter. Until then, she said, the company would have to comply with the letters unless it shows the FBI didn't follow proper procedures in making its demands for customer data in the 19 letters Google is challenging.

After receiving sworn statements from two top-ranking FBI officials, the judge said she was satisfied that 17 of the 19 letters were issued properly. She wanted more information on two other letters.

Google could appeal the decision. The company declined comment.

Kurt Opsah, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said: "We are disappointed that the same judge who declared these letters unconstitutional is now requiring compliance with them."