National Security Letter Gag Rule Overturned

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has found that the Patriot Act's gag rule associated with national security letters is unconstitutional:

The appeals court invalidated parts of the statute that wrongly placed the burden on NSL recipients to initiate judicial review of gag orders, holding that the government has the burden to go to court and justify silencing NSL recipients. The appeals court also invalidated parts of the statute that narrowly limited judicial review of the gag orders – provisions that required the courts to treat the government's claims about the need for secrecy as conclusive and required the courts to defer entirely to the executive branch.

This is a victory against one of the most Kafkaesque aspects of the security state created by Bush and His Evil Minions^™, which allowed the FBI to demand evidence without a warrant, and prohibited the recipient of a letter from talking to a lawyer to challenge the letter.