[JURIST] The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) [advocacy website] filed a certiorari petition [PDF text] Wednesday asking the US Supreme Court [official website] to hear a challenge of the government's domestic surveillance program [JURIST news archive] that was rejected [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] by the US Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals [official website] in July. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit include attorneys, advocacy groups, scholars, and journalists who said that they could not effectively communicate with sources and clients out of fear that their conversations were being monitored by the National Security Agency [official website]. The Sixth Circuit dismissed the case because none of the plaintiffs could prove that their conversations had been monitored.

In their cert. petition, the ACLU asked [press release] the Supreme Court to determine whether the plaintiffs have standing to bring the lawsuit. In addition, the ACLU questioned the legality of the government's surveillance activities in general. The Supreme Court will decide whether to approve or deny the petition later this year. Reuters has more.