The U.S. government reversed course on whether to...

The U.S. government reversed course on whether to disclose a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court opinion interpreting the authorities of Patriot Act Section 215 phone surveillance. The government has debated this opinion, issued in docket BR 13-25 on Feb. 19, before the FISC for months now. In October, the FISC ordered the government to release a timetable for making public a redacted version. The government resisted in November, saying it wanted to withhold the opinion in full. Compelled to explain, the government did so in a December filing before the FISC, released Monday (http://1.usa.gov/1gjSuHI). The opinion is classified and involves ongoing FBI law enforcement investigation of one person in a counterterrorism case, and hence is “protected by the law enforcement investigatory privilege,” the government said. But “upon review and as a discretionary matter,” the government is now fine with the FISC moving forward with publishing a redacted version of the opinion that omits classified information and doesn’t threaten the ongoing investigation, it said. It provided proposed redactions.