14 DAY TRIAL // Lavabit, the encrypted email service that shut down early last month without too many details, is requesting a partial unsealing of the case that is currently being kept confidential.
Email service Lavabit went offline and its owner and operator Ladar Levison alluded to a complicated play behind the scenes that had him unable of revealing any kind of details about why he chose to shut down the service.
However, he did allude to the fact that the government requested something from him and by choosing not to comply, he had to close down a service he’s dedicated years of his life to.
“We’ve already started preparing the paperwork needed to continue to fight for the Constitution in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals,” reads a recent message posted by Levison on the site.
The motion was filed in the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. It asks the government to unseal the case, or in the alternative, for a protective order to allow potential amici curiae to view documents currently under seal that are the basis for the appeal.
The government must respond to the request by October 2.
Earlier this month Levison revealed that he was trying to raise money to finance the appeal on his case, managing to gather some $100,000 (€75,000) for this.
“It’s become clear to me over last couple of months that all of the major providers here in the US have provided our government with real-time access to private information of their users,” Levison said at the time.
It’s worth to mention, as Politico points out, that the judge presiding over the case is Claude M. Hilton, the same justice who signed the warrant of arrest on NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.