ACLU Seeks Records of Alleged Campus Spying

The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit on Tuesday to force the Defense Department to turn over documents related to alleged government spying at two California universities, the Associated Press reported today. The alleged spying, at the Universities of California at Berkeley and at Santa Cruz, is said to have focused on participants in antiwar protest groups. The groups held rallies last year that later appeared in a Pentagon database as “threats” to national security (The Chronicle, January 19). The Santa Cruz event was described as a “credible threat.” The ACLU said the Defense Department stonewalled, delayed, or rejected its Freedom of Information Act requests for the records.