Nicholas Merrill is an
America
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
n
system administrator
A system administrator, or sysadmin, or admin is a person who is responsible for the upkeep, configuration, and reliable operation of computer systems, especially multi-user computers, such as servers. The system administrator seeks to ensu ...
,
computer programmer
A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software.
A programmer is someone who writes/creates ...
, and
entrepreneur
Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...
. He is the founder of Calyx Internet Access, an
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
and
hosted service provider
A hosted service provider (xSP) is a business that delivers a combination of traditional IT functions such as infrastructure, applications (software as a service), security, monitoring, storage, web development, website hosting and email, over the ...
founded in 1995, and of the non-profit
Calyx Institute
The Calyx Institute is a New York-based 501(c)(3) research and education nonprofit organization formed to make privacy and digital security more accessible. It was founded in 2010 by Nicholas Merrill, Micah Anderson, and Kobi Snitz.
History
...
. He was the first person to file a constitutional challenge against the
National Security Letter
A national security letter (NSL) is an administrative subpoena issued by the United States government to gather information for national security purposes. NSLs do not require prior approval from a judge. The Stored Communications Act, Fair Cred ...
s statute in the
USA PATRIOT Act
The USA PATRIOT Act (commonly known as the Patriot Act) was a landmark Act of Congress, Act of the United States Congress, signed into law by President of the United States, President George W. Bush. The formal name of the statute is the Uniti ...
and consequently the first person to have a National Security Letter gag order completely lifted.
Education and early career
Challenging the National Security Letter: ''Doe v. Ashcroft''
After receiving a
National Security Letter
A national security letter (NSL) is an administrative subpoena issued by the United States government to gather information for national security purposes. NSLs do not require prior approval from a judge. The Stored Communications Act, Fair Cred ...
(NSL) from the
FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...
, he sued the FBI and
Department of Justice
A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a v ...
and became the plaintiff in the lawsuit ''
Doe v. Ashcroft
''American Civil Liberties Union v. Ashcroft'' (filed April 9, 2004 in the United States) is a lawsuit filed on behalf of a formerly unknown Internet Service Provider (ISP) owner by the American Civil Liberties Union against the U.S. federal gove ...
'' (filed April 9, 2004 in the United States) filed on behalf of a formerly unknown
ISP
An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...
owner by the
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...
and the
New York Civil Liberties Union
The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) is a civil rights organization in the United States. Founded in November 1951 as the New York affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, it is a not-for-profit, nonpartisan organization with nearl ...
against the U.S. federal government.
The letter—on FBI letterhead—requested that Merrill provide 16 categories of "electronic communication transactional records," including e-mail address, account number and billing information. Most of the other categories remain
redacted by the FBI.
Merrill never complied with the FBI's National Security Letter request, and eventually—several years into the lawsuit—the FBI decided it no longer wanted the information it had demanded and dropped its demand for records. However, for several years after dropping the demand, the FBI continued to prevent Merrill from publicly speaking about the NSL, or even from being publicly identified as the recipient of the NSL.
Because National Security Letters are accompanied by an open-ended, lifelong
gag order
A gag order (also known as a gagging order or suppression order) is an order, typically a legal order by a court or government, restricting information or comment from being made public or passed onto any unauthorized third party. The phrase may ...
, Merrill was unable to be identified in court papers as the plaintiff in the case and instead was referred to as "John Doe". As the years passed and the person who held the office of
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general.
In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...
changed, the case was renamed from ''Doe v. Ashcroft'' to ''
Doe v. Gonzales
''John Doe v. Alberto R. Gonzales'' (originally filed as ''Doe v. Ashcroft'', renamed ''Doe v. Gonzalez'', and finally issued as ''Doe v. Mukasey'') was a case in which the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Library Connection, and several the ...
'', and then to ''Doe v. Mukasey'', and finally ''Doe v. Holder''. In fact, in 2007 the Washington Post made an exception to its policy against anonymous op-eds to publish an editorial by Merrill because of the gag order.
The case yielded two significant rulings. The first was a September 2004 district court decision that the national security letter statute was unconstitutional, which prompted Congress to amend the law to allow a recipient to challenge the demand for records and the gag order. The second was a December 2008 appeals court decision that held that parts of the amended gag provisions violated the First Amendment and that, to avoid this, the FBI must prove to a court that disclosure would harm national security in cases where the recipient resists the gag order.
On August 10, 2010, after more than 6 years, Nicholas Merrill was partially released from his gag order and allowed to reveal his identity, although he still could not reveal what information the FBI sought from him. This was 3 years after Merrill won The
Roger Baldwin 'Medal of Liberty' award from the
ACLU
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...
, which had to present the award to an empty chair at the time.
Merrill subsequently founded the nonprofit Calyx Institute to provide education and research on privacy issues. The advisory board of The Calyx Institute includes many notable people in the fields of
telecommunications
Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...
,
cryptography
Cryptography, or cryptology (from grc, , translit=kryptós "hidden, secret"; and ''graphein'', "to write", or ''-logia'', "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of adver ...
, privacy advocacy and
computer security
Computer security, cybersecurity (cyber security), or information technology security (IT security) is the protection of computer systems and networks from attack by malicious actors that may result in unauthorized information disclosure, the ...
, including but not limited to
John Perry Barlow
John Perry Barlow (October 3, 1947February 7, 2018) was an American poet, essayist, cattle rancher, and cyberlibertarian political activist who had been associated with both the Democratic and Republican parties. He was also a lyricist for the ...
,
Laura Poitras
Laura Poitras (; born February 2, 1964) is an American director and producer of documentary films.
Poitras has received numerous awards for her work, including the 2015 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for ''Citizenfour'', about Edwa ...
,
Susan Herman
Susan N. Herman (born 1947) is an American constitutional law scholar and presided as president of the American Civil Liberties Union from October 2008 to January 2021. Herman has taught at Brooklyn Law School since 1980.
Early life and educatio ...
,
Bob Barr
Robert Laurence Barr Jr. (born November 5, 1948) is an American attorney and politician. He served as a federal prosecutor and as a United States House of Representatives, Congressman. He represented Georgia's 7th congressional district as a Re ...
and Jason Snyder. The Calyx Institute is a member of the
torservers.net torservers.net is an independent network of non-profit organisations that provide nodes to the Tor anonymity network. The network started in June 2010 and currently transfers up to 7.4GB/s (~59.2Gb/s) of exit node traffic as of May 2022.
Torserve ...
network, an organization of nonprofits which specializes in the general establishment of
Tor anonymity network exit nodes via workshops and donations.
One of the institute's projects is CalyxOS, which is a
custom Android distribution using the principles of "privacy by design."
He gave the talk "The importance of resisting Excessive Government Surveillance" at the annual
Chaos Communication Congress
The Chaos Communication Congress is an annual conference organized by the Chaos Computer Club. The congress features a variety of lectures and workshops on technical and political issues related to security, cryptography, privacy and online ...
2010 from the German
Hacker
A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who uses their technical knowledge to achieve a goal or overcome an obstacle, within a computerized system by non-standard means. Though the term ''hacker'' has become associated in popu ...
Group
Chaos Computer Club
The Chaos Computer Club (CCC) is Europe's largest association of hackers with 7,700 registered members. Founded in 1981, the association is incorporated as an ''eingetragener Verein'' in Germany, with local chapters (called ''Erfa-Kreise'') in ...
in which he told his story of the past 6 years.
On September 14, 2015, 11 years after the initial NSL, a federal district court judge in New York fully lifted the gag order, allowing Merrill to speak freely about the contents of the NSL he received. On November 30, 2015, the unredacted ruling was published in full.
Awards and appointments
*
Roger Baldwin 'Medal of Liberty', 2007
*
Bill of Rights Defense Committee
Bill(s) may refer to:
Common meanings
* Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States)
* Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature
* Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer
* Bill, a bird or animal's beak
Plac ...
'Patriot Award', 2012
*PopTech 2012 Social Innovation Fellow
[PopTech Social Innovation Fellows Class of 2012 http://poptech.org/blog/announcing_the_social_innovation_fellows_class_of_2012]
See also
*
National Security Letter
A national security letter (NSL) is an administrative subpoena issued by the United States government to gather information for national security purposes. NSLs do not require prior approval from a judge. The Stored Communications Act, Fair Cred ...
*
USA PATRIOT Act
The USA PATRIOT Act (commonly known as the Patriot Act) was a landmark Act of Congress, Act of the United States Congress, signed into law by President of the United States, President George W. Bush. The formal name of the statute is the Uniti ...
*
Doe v. Ashcroft
''American Civil Liberties Union v. Ashcroft'' (filed April 9, 2004 in the United States) is a lawsuit filed on behalf of a formerly unknown Internet Service Provider (ISP) owner by the American Civil Liberties Union against the U.S. federal gove ...
References
External links
Calyx Institute (official website)*http://www.aclu.org/FilesPDFs/nsl_decision.pdf
*http://www.democracynow.org/2010/8/11/gagged_for_6_years_nick_merrill
*http://www.law.duke.edu/publiclaw/civil/index.php?action=showcase&id=29
*https://litigation-essentials.lexisnexis.com/webcd/app?action=DocumentDisplay&crawlid=1&crawlid=1&doctype=cite&docid=6+PGH.+J.+Tech.+L.+%26+Pol'y+8&srctype=smi&srcid=3B15&key=32099640c7b53d75580c31af59e61709
*http://www.scribd.com/doc/19030726/Doe-vs-Mukasey-Decision
{{DEFAULTSORT:Merrill, Nicholas
Living people
1972 births
Free speech activists
Privacy activists
American activists
Internet activists
American computer programmers
American businesspeople