A federal judge in Oregon yesterday allowed an Islamic charity to proceed with a suit challenging the surveillance program in which the government, without warrants, monitors some international communications of people in the United States.

The suit is similar to actions pending in Detroit and New York, but with a wrinkle: the charity says it has seen a classified document confirming that its communications with its lawyers were actually intercepted. In the other suits, the plaintiffs face the preliminary hurdle of establishing that they have standing to sue based only on the risk that there has been interception....

Last month, a federal judge in Detroit ordered the surveillance program shut down, saying it violated the Constitution and a federal law; the government has appealed, and the ruling has been stayed. In July, a federal judge in San Francisco allowed a suit against AT&T over its cooperation with the program to proceed, notwithstanding the government’s assertion of the state secrets privilege. [Link]

[HT: How Appealing]