DOJ, ACLU in court over NJ documents

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A panel of federal judges expressed skepticism Tuesday about the American Civil Liberties Unions’ contention that the FBI must make public more details about what census data it uses in its investigations in New Jersey.

The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia is the second federal appeals court to take up the issue on whether the Department of Justice was right to deny portions of Freedom of Information Act requests filed in 2011 when the ACLU asked the 34 FBI field offices nationwide to detail what “public source” racial and ethnic data they use.

The ACLU says it has learned from the information it has received that the government has investigated groups such as African-Americans in Georgia, Arabs in Michigan and Latin Americans in New Jersey.

The ACLU contends that such “suspicionless” investigations are illegal and that the government is keeping secrets that it shouldn’t. Though the FBI did hand over more than 200 pages of documents, the civil liberties group says it needs more complete information to know which communities could be targeted in New Jersey.

In tough questioning Tuesday of ACLU lawyer Nusrat Choudhury, the panel of judges asked about the ACLU’s intentions since it was asking for data already in the public domain.
“You don’t want the public information,” Judge D. Brooks Smith said. “You want to know what they’re doing with it.”

The ACLU is also suing over information denials in California.