[intralizee]

I'm curious to what HN crowd thinks about a question related to all this.

People are now under the assumption that US agencies are collecting all calls, emails, anything electronic for all citizens as it's technically possible and confirmation is slowly being revealed.

If a crime was committed to a citizen, how would said citizen legally make a request for information the NSA or any agency has that would be useful as evidence. Shouldn't all citizens be able to use what is being collected in court as the government is for the people? How would a person in court go about requesting anything if the possibility exists.

[digler999]

I know some people have already tried that and obviously failed. they just pull the "security" card and say any information they have cannot be disclosed in court because its a threat to national security. then they'd say those matters can only be conducted in a secret court where everyone has "security clearance", and oops - sorry plaintiff - you don't, so you're excluded from your own trial.

This was part of what happened to Ladar Levison, owner of Lavabit which was served with an NSL. He couldn't easily shop for a lawyer because he could only contact lawyers that were authorized to handle top secret material. And he had to appear at one specific court venue in Virginia even though he was from Texas.