Nick Cargo
Published: Wednesday January 14, 2009
The Electronic Frontier Foundation and the ACLU of California have filed a federal lawsuit against the FBI and local authorities over the seizure and search of two organizations' computers, they jointly announced Wednesday.
On August 27, 2008, the University of California Police, the Alameda County Sheriff's Department and the FBI took part in a raid of the Berkeley offices of two politically active groups, Long Haul Infoshop and East Bay Prisoner Support Group (EBPS), seizing every computer in the building, even those behind locked doors, which were opened by force. The raid was conducted despite no allegations of wrongdoing on the part of either organization or any of their members, and the complaint questions the legality of the warrant obtained by authorities.
Long Haul Infoshop, an all-volunteer collective, provides community space, a lending library and Internet-connected computers to the public. It also publishes a quarterly newspaper called Slingshot. EBPS, while sharing its building, is not affiliated with Long Haul. EBPS publishes a newsletter of writing by prisoners, also distributes literature to, and advocates for, the prison population, including LGBT and female inmates.
The computers were eventually returned, but copies of their data were likely made. "As long as the government keeps the copies they made of these hard drives," ACLU staff attorney Michael Risher said, "they are continuing to violate the privacy of everyone who wrote or stored a document on the computers" ...
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Activist_organizations_file_suit_against_FBI_0114.htmlpdf of complaint available here:January 14th, 2009
Community Organizations and Publishers Sue FBI and Other Agencies Over Illegal Computer Searches
Data Seizure Violates Constitution and Federal Law
http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2009/01/14
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