Page:ACLU v. NSA Opinion (August 17, 2006), US District Court, East-Michigan.djvu/21

 plaintiffs merely indicated "'some day' intentions to visit endangered species around the world." Friends of the Earth, 528 U.S. at 184 (quoting Lujan, 504 U.S. at 564). The court found that the affiants' conditional statements that they would use the nearby river for recreation if defendant were not discharging pollutants into it was sufficient to establish a concrete injury. Id. at 184.

Here, Plaintiffs are not asserting speculative allegations. Instead, the declarations asserted by Plaintiffs establish that they are suffering a present concrete injury in addition to a chill of their First Amendment rights. Plaintiffs would be able to continue using the telephone and email in the execution of their professional responsibilities if the Defendants were not undisputedly and admittedly conducting warrantless wiretaps of conversations. As in Friends of the Earth, this damage to their interest is sufficient to establish a concrete injury.

Numerous cases have granted standing where the plaintiffs have suffered concrete profession-related injuries comparable to those suffered by Plaintiffs here. For example, the First Circuit conferred standing upon claimants who challenged an executive order which required applicants for employment with the World Health Organization to undergo a "loyalty" check that included an investigation into the applicant's associations and activities. The court there determined that such an investigation would have a chilling effect on what an applicant says or does, a sufficient injury to confer standing. Ozonoff, 744 F.2d at 228-229. Similarly, the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals granted standing to a reshelver of books at the Library of Congress who was subjected to a full field FBI investigation which included an inquiry into his political beliefs and associations and subsequently resulted in his being denied a promotion or any additional employment opportunities; the court having determined that plaintiff had suffered a present objective harm, as well as an objective chill of his First Amendment rights and not merely a [*22]