
Human Rights Watch Sues DEA Over Bulk Collection of Americans’ Telephone Records - DiabloD3
https://www.eff.org/press/releases/human-rights-watch-sues-dea-over-bulk-collection-americans-telephone-records
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higherpurpose
Let's hope the "no standing" argument doesn't work this time?

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somemirth
Sorry if this is a naive question, but what is a "no standing argument"?

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coldcode
The legal theory (or practice) that you have to prove you have been personally
hurt in order to sue the government. Often the government claims that if you
cannot prove you have been personally affected you can't sue, and then uses
secrecy laws to ensure you can't prove you have been hurt.

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evgen
It is also used to prevent random serial litigants from clogging up the court
system with BS cases. Requiring the plaintiff to show that they have actually
suffered harm is not a difficult bar to cross in most cases and the benefits
this requirement brings to the legal system as a whole outweigh its
inconvenience in cases like this.

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higherpurpose
I know, but I also know judges often rule based on "common sense" and "intent"
of harm, regardless of the _letter of the law_.

Surely the fact that documents say that millions of people have been spied
upon with such a program means that the judge should allow a case by an
organization like EFF or HRW go through, even if the employees of that
organization weren't _personally affected_ by it? There should be a "for
public interest" clause somewhere, or at least as an unwritten rule.

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harryh
How do you decide what organizations get that special privilege?

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dguaraglia
Why the DEA and not the NSA? I wonder if there's any political motivation
about it.

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tsotha
It's going to be a lot harder for the DEA to assert some sort of national
security privilege.

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dguaraglia
This is actually a good point. Then it'd be easier to leverage a potential
positive outcome from this case to put a fire under the NSA and other agencies
doing this. I like it.

