The Obama administration should be permitted to keep a legal opinion secret that allows the FBI to obtain certain telephone records without any formal legal process, a Justice Department lawyer told a U.S. appeals court Tuesday. The legal assertion by the Justice Department came in response to a lawsuit that alleges the department's Office of Legal Counsel violated the federal open-records laws by refusing to release the memo, which says the bureau can collect international phone call data without court oversight or a "qualifying emergency." As a result of the Justice Department's refusal to release the memo, the circumstances under which the bureau can collect the records and the precise legal authority it relies on remain secret.
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