US Secrecy Prevails In German Constitutional Court

The German constitutional court has rebuffed a second complaint seeking to allow oversight bodies to see the US National Security Administration (NSA) selector list.

The list was pushed by the NSA to its German sister organisation BND to crawl through data traffic intercepted at the DeCIX, an internet exchange point in Frankfurt and traffic-wise the largest peering platform worldwide.

When the NSA Inquiry Committee of the German Parliament demanded to see the selectors used, the government decided to not share the information, resulting in a complaint of two opposition parties before the Constitutional Court.

While the judges today ruled that the Parliamentary Oversight body in fact had a legitimate interest in the information to do its work, it decided the German government’s freedom of action and the relations with the US outweighed the oversight and potential violations of fundamental rights in Germany.

It is the second time the German Constitutional Court has ruled against an oversight body in the country’s post-Snowden inquiries. Some weeks ago the judges declared the G10 oversight committee had no standing. The committee had also filed a complaint for the withholding of the selectors.

More information is here (in German).