American hero and true patriot, Nicholas Merrill, age 37, was silenced for six years under a gag order. He couldn't defend himself or his company. He had to shut up and to keep quiet. Why? The U.S. Patriot Act, which is the most unpatriotic thing since the infamous and odious Alien and Sedition Acts of the late eighteenth century. What makes Mr. Merrill an America hero is that he challenged the government's heavy hand and won.

Mr. Merrill's story was reported yesterday at Wired.com.

"Nicholas Merrill, 37, was president of New York-based Calyx Internet Access when he received a so-called “national security letter” from the FBI in February 2004 demanding records of one of his customers and filed a lawsuit to challenge it. His company was a combination ISP and security consultancy business that was launched in the mid-90s and had about 200 customers, Merrill said, many of them advertising agencies and non-profit groups.

"Despite the fact that the FBI later dropped its demand for the records, Merrill was prohibited from telling his fiancée, friends or family members that he had received the letter or that he was embroiled in a lawsuit challenging its legitimacy. He occasionally showed up for court hearings about the case, but sat silently in the audience with other court observers. In 2007, he was prevented from publicly accepting an award for his courage from the American Civil Liberties Union, because he was not allowed to identify himself as the plaintiff in the case.

"U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero in New York finally released Merrill partially from the gag order (.pdf) on July 30, which Merrill revealed publicly only on Monday.

“After six long years of not being able to tell anyone at all what happened to me – not even my family – I’m grateful to finally be able to talk about my experience of being served with a national security letter,” Merrill said in a statement. “Internet users do not give up their privacy rights when they log on, and the FBI should not have the power to secretly demand that ISPs turn over constitutionally protected information about their users without a court order. I hope my successful challenge to the FBI’s NSL gag power will empower others who may have received NSLs to speak out.”

National Security Letters, (NSL), are nasty instruments, that a federal bureau, such as the FBI, uses to demand private records without a court order. Any FBI field agent is able to write up a NSL, claim that the info he is seeking is part of a national security investigation, and toss out the several rights guaranteed to Americans under the Constitution. A 2007, a Justice Department Inspector General audit reported that the "FBI, which issued almost 200,000 NSLs between 2003 and 2006, had abused its authority and misused NSLs." Read more about this and more at Threat Level at Wired.com.

The Obama Administration, forgetful of campaign pledges, is trying to expand the FBI’s power to demand even more records without court approval or suspicion of wrongdoing. This is most wrong. If the info is needed for a legit investigation, a court order should be obtained. If the feds can't convince a judge to grant a court order, then the feds reason for wanting to search through a citizen's private files is probably most bogus.