BELLINGHAM (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union filed a challenge Wednesday to a sheriff’s search warrant in northwestern Washington that seeks private Facebook data as part of an investigation into a Dakota Access oil pipeline protest.
The ACLU of Washington filed the motion to quash the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office warrant for data on the Bellingham #NoDAPL Coalition Facebook page.
The ACLU claims the warrant is overbroad and unconstitutional and seeks not only private online communications and information about the group’s political activity, but also data related to an unknown number of individuals who merely interacted with the group via Facebook at some point during the 12 days both before and after the Feb. 11 protest.
“Political speech and the freedom to engage in political activity without being subjected to undue government scrutiny are at the heart of the First Amendment,” ACLU of Washington staff attorney La Rond Baker said in a statement announcing the filing. “Further, the Fourth Amendment prohibits the government from performing broad fishing expeditions into private affairs. And seizing information from Facebook accounts simply because they are associated with protests of the government violates these core constitutional principles.”