[JURIST] Lawyers for the US Department of Justice Thursday asked the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals [official website] to reverse a ruling [JURIST report] of Judge Garr King of US District Court in Portland to allow a lawsuit by the US branch of the Saudi Arabia-based Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation [Wikipedia profile] to proceed against the US government over the warrantless wiretapping [JURIST news archive] of communications between the foundation and its attorneys. Earlier this month, King denied the government's motion to dismiss [opinion, PDF], rejecting contentions [JURIST report] that the proceeding would reveal state secrets.

The Oregon lawsuit, filed [JURIST report] by the now-defunct foundation in February, claims that the NSA had illegally wiretapping several conversations between the charity and its attorneys, having failed to get a court order as required by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) [official materials]. AP has more.