[marssaxman]

It's not illegal to answer "no" if asked whether you have received a national security letter, and neither is it illegal to answer "no comment" if asked whether you have received a national security letter. Nor, further, is it illegal to respond with silence.

Having once given a legal, true answer to the question "have you received a national security letter", a person can later give a different legal, true answer to the same question, or can later choose to respond with silence.

Otherwise, you are asserting that the feds may do more than merely forbid the recipient of an NSL from talking about it, and actually have the authority to force the recipient of an NSL to lie about it.

I sure hope that isn't true. If it is, I'm not sure any of this matters, because we're all fucked already. I cannot conceive of any legitimate justification for allowing any government to have such a power.