[JURIST] The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) [advocacy website] has filed a lawsuit on behalf of 16 lawyers who once represented Guantanamo Bay detainees to force US government agencies to turn over recordings allegedly made of the lawyers while meeting with their clients. The CCR filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit [complaint, PDF; case summary] in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York Thursday, asking a federal judge to force the Department of Justice (DOJ) and National Security Administration (NSA) [official websites] to disclose the information. Under FOIA, the government is required to produce documents within 20 days.

In 2006, CCR filed a lawsuit, CCR v. Bush [CCR synopsis], seeking an injuction against the US government conducting warrantless surveillance [JURIST news archive] within the US. CCR said at the time that because there were "no safeguards put in place to ensure that attorney-client privileged communications are not being monitored, it is almost certain that confidential communications between CCR staff and our clients have been caught up in this massive web of illegal surveillance." That case is currently pending. UPI has more.