Courtney Jorstad  |  August 22, 2014

Category: Legal News

Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.

NSA surveillance lawsuitGovernment attorneys have asked a Washington, D.C. federal judge to dismiss one of the three lawsuits filed against the federal government including President Barack Obama about whether or not the collection of personal information by the National Security Agency is constitutional.

The three lawsuits were filed by former Justice Department antitrust attorney Larry Klayman, founder of the government watch dog groups Judicial Watch and Freedom Watch.

The attorneys representing the federal government want the last NSA class action lawsuit filed by Klayman tossed because they claim it is nearly identical to the the second lawsuit he filed, saying it is “almost verbatim.”

“The Klaymann III Complaint restates the claims and allegations of the Klayman II Second Amended Complaint almost verbatim, and thus is paradigmatic example of improper claims splitting: maintaining more than one action involving the same subject matter at the same time in the same court and against the same defendants,” the government attorneys explain.

The federal government contends that the reason the third lawsuit was filed was because Klayman did not “meet the strict deadline for seeking class certification in Klayman II.”

However, the government attorneys say that even if U.S. District Judge Richard Leon doesn’t recognize the claim splitting by Klayman, the NSA class action lawsuit “must be dismissed for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction.”

According to the attorneys, Klayman claims in his argument against the lack of standing in the NSA data collection lawsuit that “if they do not have standing, then no one has standing,” but the government attorneys contend that this assertion “is neither factually correct nor legally sufficient to establish standing.”

They also say that Klayman’s allegations are conclusory, meaning that there is no evidence to support the allegations, and that “they identify no injury supporting their Fifth Amendment claim.”

In addition, when it comes “Plaintiffs’ challenges to the NSA’s PRISM collection and the putative ‘MUSCULAR’ program, they again fail to adequately plead that their communications have been acquired under those programs.”

The government attorneys claim that the lawsuit should be dismissed because Klayman’s allegations that their First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendment rights have been violated by the NSA data collection programs should each “be dismissed as a matter of law,” adding that “this alone” should be enough to dismiss the allegations “under well-settled precedent.”

Klayman said in a previous motion that the federal government wanted the case dismissed because it didn’t want to go through the discovery process.

“[Government defendants] seek to dismiss plaintiffs’ claim for lack of standing so that they can avoid discovery, which would ultimately confirm further the government defendants’ illegal secret schemes to the public,” Klayman wrote in that motion filed in July.

Judge Leon issued an injunction order in December regarding the first two NSA class action lawsuits that, if it remains, bans the government from collecting Klayman’s and another plaintiff’s metadata from Verizon Communications Inc.

Klayman is representing himself.

The government is represented by Bryan Dearinger, Rodney Patton and Julia Berman of the U.S. Department of Justice.

The NSA Data Collection Class Action Lawsuits are Klayman et al. v. Obama et al., Case Nos.1:14-cv-00092, 1:13-cv-00851 and 1:13-cv-00881, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

We tell you about cash you can claim EVERY WEEK! Sign up for our free newsletter.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. By submitting your comment and contact information, you agree to receive marketing emails from Top Class Actions regarding this and/or similar lawsuits or settlements, and/or to be contacted by an attorney or law firm to discuss the details of your potential case at no charge to you if you qualify. Required fields are marked *

Please note: Top Class Actions is not a settlement administrator or law firm. Top Class Actions is a legal news source that reports on class action lawsuits, class action settlements, drug injury lawsuits and product liability lawsuits. Top Class Actions does not process claims and we cannot advise you on the status of any class action settlement claim. You must contact the settlement administrator or your attorney for any updates regarding your claim status, claim form or questions about when payments are expected to be mailed out.