A federal judge has ruled that the US government must unseal more documents related to the NSA spying program by December 20. The news comes from an Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) press release after the organization found some recent success in its long-running Jewel v. NSA lawsuit. (The EFF initially filed suit in 2008 in response to Bush administration revelations about the existence of NSA spying programs.)

In Jewel v. NSA, Judge Jeffrey White had ordered the government to unseal declassified materials such as exhibits, declarations, and other ex parte submissions—documents orginially submitted to the court under seal. The government then argued to only release a new declaration, claiming reviewing all those materials would become a heavy burden. The EFF objected and Judge White agreed. He stated the government had plenty of resources available for the task, stating that the court, public, and plaintiffs should have a "fulsome" record to access.

The EFF identifies the fundamental question in Jewel v. NSA as "whether the spying program is legal and constitutional." The case is chugging along despite a rocky history. After its filing in 2008, the government moved to dismiss the case in 2009, a judge in the Northern District of California agreed in 2010, but the Ninth Circuit US Court of Appeals eventually reinstated the case in 2011. The government renewed its attempts to dismiss Jewel v. NSA in 2012, but that argument was rejected earlier this year.