The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will be in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia on Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2011, for a hearing in a legal battle over the government's demands for the records of several Twitter users in connection with an investigation related to WikiLeaks.

The ACLU and EFF represent Birgitta Jonsdottir, an Icelandic parliamentarian and one of the Twitter users whose records were sought by the government. They have asked the court to unseal the still-secret court records of the government's attempts to collect private records from Twitter, Inc., as well as other companies who may have received demands for information from the government. The groups have also asked the court to overturn the December 14, 2010 court order requiring Twitter to provide information about its users.

The motions were joined by attorneys from the law firm Keker & Van Nest LLP and the Law Office of John D. Cline on behalf of Jacob Appelbaum and Rop Gonggrijp, respectively, as well as local counsel in Virginia. The government has also requested information concerning Appelbaum and Gonggrijp's Twitter accounts.

More information about the case is online here.

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