ACLU fights returning classified info

NEW YORK, Dec. 14 (UPI) -- The American Civil Liberties Union in New York is challenging a federal grand jury subpoena to turn over an unsolicited classified document it received.

The legal rights group challenged the government's demand it return "any and all copies" of a three-and-a-half page document that was e-mailed to it by an unidentified source.

The ACLU called the document unremarkable and said it "has nothing to do with national defense," the New York Times reported Thursday.

Anthony Romero, the ACLU's executive director, said the grand jury subpoena was a new suppression tactic by the Bush administration. "The government is involved in a very conscious effort to suppress its critics," Romero said.

John Eastman, a law professor at Chapman University, disagreed.

"Assuming it's properly classified, I actually think the government is bending over backwards to accommodate the ACLU rather than pulling the trigger in prosecuting them," he told the Times.