D.C. Circuit Affirms in EPIC v. NSA
A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a District Court judgment in favor of the National Security Agency in a case brought by the Electronic Privacy Information Center under the Freedom of Information Act. The FOIA request, readers may recall, sought communications between the NSA and Google related to a cyber attack on Google back in 2010 that targeted Chinese human rights activists.
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A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a District Court judgment in favor of the National Security Agency in a case brought by the Electronic Privacy Information Center under the Freedom of Information Act. The FOIA request, readers may recall, sought communications between the NSA and Google related to a cyber attack on Google back in 2010 that targeted Chinese human rights activists. The NSA responded to the FOIA request and issued a Glomar response neither confirming nor denying the existence of any records, and EPIC subsequently filed suit.
The D.C. Circuit opinion characterizes the District Court's holding, which it affirmed today, in the following way:
The district court held that NSA was entitled to summary judgment because the Janosek Declaration was "both logical and plausible" and "contain[ed] sufficient detail, pursuant to Section 6, to support NSA’s claim that the protected information [sought by EPIC] pertains to" NSA’s organization, functions, or activities.The three-judge panel consisted of Senior Circuit Judge Douglas Ginsburg and Circuit Judges Brett Kavanaugh and Janice Rogers Brown--who wrote the opinion. Read the opinion here, and the District Court's memorandum opinion here.
Raffaela Wakeman is a Senior Director at In-Q-Tel. She started her career at the Brookings Institution, where she spent five years conducting research on national security, election reform, and Congress. During this time she was also the Associate Editor of Lawfare. From there, Raffaela practiced law at the U.S. Department of Defense for four years, advising her clients on privacy and surveillance law, cybersecurity, and foreign liaison relationships. She departed DoD in 2019 to join the Majority Staff of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, where she oversaw the Intelligence Community’s science and technology portfolios, cybersecurity, and surveillance activities. She left HPSCI in May 2021 to join IQT.
Raffaela received her BS and MS in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2009 and her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 2015, where she was recognized for her commitment to public service with the Joyce Chiang Memorial Award. While at the Department of Defense, she was the inaugural recipient of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s General Counsel Award for exhibiting the highest standards of leadership, professional conduct, and integrity.
