WASHINGTON, DC — The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have filed suit against the U.S. Department of Justice in an attempt to force the DOJ to explain how and why it tracks cellular phone users. The lawsuit seeks “documents, memos and guides” about DOJ cell-tracking procedures in what the ACLU and the EFF characterize as an effort to help Americans “understand the privacy risks of carrying a mobile phone.” The suit also seeks information about the number of times the government has applied for cell phone location information without establishing probable cause and how many times such requests have been granted.“The overwhelming majority of Americans — over 200 million people — carry mobile phones,” according to the complaint, which was filed July 1st in federal court in Washington, DC. “This large number is steadily increasing. The information the ACLU seeks therefore bears on the privacy of a vast segment of the United States population.”

The ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the records in November 2007 following media reports that federal officials are using Americans’ cell phones to pinpoint their locations, sometimes without a warrant or any court oversight. The DOJ has failed to release the documents or provide an adequate response to the request, an ACLU representative said.

“This is a critical opportunity to shed much-needed light on possibly unconstitutional government surveillance techniques,” said Catherine Crump, staff attorney with the ACLU and lead attorney on the case. “Signing up for cell phone services should not be synonymous with signing up to be spied on and tracked by the government.”

The ACLU submitted the FOIA request to the DOJ after discovering that some government officials claim not to need probable cause to obtain real-time tracking information from people’s cell phones. The news reports on which the request was based also suggested some federal law enforcement agents have obtained tracking data directly from mobile phone service providers without any court oversight.

“The public has an overwhelming interest in the requested information, which concerns our most personal communications,” said David L. Sobel, the EFF’s senior counsel and co-counsel on the case. “But remarkably, the Justice Department refused to respond quickly to the request, as the law requires when ‘urgent’ information is at issue. Further delay will allow important privacy policies to be developed behind closed doors.”

The only money the suit seeks is reimbursement for costs incurred in the pursuit of the records.