Five people who visited a web site that helped organize Inauguration Day protests are attempting to oppose a search warrant requiring the site's hosting company, DreamHost, to turn over identifying information about visitors.
The Justice Department responded in a court filing late Tuesday, saying the government "has no interest" in such a broad swath of records and offering an amended search warrant request that narrows the scope of the information sought.
In a court filing, the Justice Department said it was unaware of just how much information was included in the original warrant.
"That information could be used to identify any individuals who used this site to exercise and express political speech protected under the Constitution's First Amendment".
"This is, in our opinion strong example of investigatory overreach and a clear abuse of government authority", the company said in a statement last week publicizing its intention to challenge the warrant. "This Warrant has nothing to do with that right", wrote Phillips. At issue is disruptj20.org, which describes itself as "building the framework needed for mass protests to shut down the inauguration of Donald Trump and planning widespread direct actions to make that happen".
"The DOJ has recently asked DreamHost to provide all information available to us about this website, its owner, and, more importantly, its visitors", DreamHost says.
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It particular, DreamHost noted publicly that it had 1.3 million IP addresses of visitors, emails associated with people who used the site for legal advice, membership lists, draft blog posts and several thousand images, some published and some not. "The warrant is focused on evidence of the planning, coordination and participation in a criminal act- that is, a premeditated riot".
Concerns remain for the company despite this win, as there are still issues with the DOJ's request that DreamHost describes as "problematic for a number of reasons".
The government's warrant has been revised to specifically exclude the site's visitor logs.
Like most technology companies, DreamHost receives numerous requests for information from law enforcement each year. Despite its new limits, the warrant is still looking for info about political protests, and it seems the DoJ and DreamHost don't see eye-to-eye on the Constitutionality of that search. A hearing is scheduled Thursday before District of Columbia Superior Court Chief Judge Robert E. Morin.
It is not interested in any information that is not relevant to ongoing criminal investigations against protestors, the DoJ claims.
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