In June 2017, ACLU-DC learned of a sealed case in which Facebook had been served with search warrants for the contents of three user accounts, and had also been ordered not to tell the users or anyone else about the search warrants. After unsuccessfully challenging the gag order in D.C. Superior Court, Facebook appealed, and the Court of Appeals allowed Facebook to issue a short notice about the case. On June 30, we filed an amicus brief, together with Public Citizen, arguing that the gag order should be lifted, and that, from the few facts we knew, the search warrants were abusive fishing expeditions, probably connected to the Inauguration Day prosecutions.
In September 2017, on the day before the D.C. Court of Appeals was to hear the case, the government agreed to drop the gag order.
