A US district court has struck down (pdf) an 11-year-old gag order imposed by the FBI on Nicolas Merrill, the boss of a small ISP forcibly muted from talking about government requests for user data. Merrill was first gagged back in 2004, and has been fighting the government ever since -- even going so far as to launch a new ISP focused specifically on user privacy in the expanding domestic surveillance age.

In 2001, the Patriot Act expanded the FBI’s authority to unilaterally demand that businesses and ISPs turn over user records -- and never talk about the request -- simply by sending a National Security Letter (NSL) claiming the data was needed for national security purposes.

While the Electronic Frontier Foundation believes roughly 300,000 such National Security Letters (NSL) have been sent since the Patriot Act was created, this is the first time ever such a gag order has been lifted.

"For more than a decade, the government has refused to allow Mr. Merrill and other NSL recipients to tell the public just how broadly the FBI has interpreted its authority to surveil individuals’ digital lives in secret using NSLs," Merrill said in a press release by his organization. "Tens of thousands of NSLs are issued by FBI officers every year without a warrant or judicial oversight of any kind."

US District Court Judge Victor Marrero found "no good reason" for the gag order, while implying the system, as designed potentially prevents "accountability of the government to the people."

"For more than a decade, the FBI has fought tooth and nail in order to prevent me from speaking freely about the NSL I received,” said Mr. Merrill. “Judge Marrero’s decision vindicates the public’s right to know how the FBI uses warrantless surveillance to peer into our digital lives. I hope today’s victory will finally allow Americans to engage in an informed debate about proper the scope of the government’s warrantless surveillance powers."