From
a Mother Jones article:
A US court has ruled that Chevron Oil can subpoena the NSA to turn over all its surveillance data on environmental activists engaged in a legal dispute with Chevron.
When Chevron lost a $19 billion class-action lawsuit related to toxic oil spills in Ecuador, it appealed the ruling. When it lost its appeal, it tried a new tactic: it is asking for NSA surveillance data on people involved with the class action suit, to attempt to prove that they are engaging in a conspiracy against it.
In June, a Federal court ruled that Chevron could compel the NSA to turn over whatever surveillance data it had collected on people involved with the lawsuit. This decision potentially means that any corporation can do the same, asking the NSA to hand over surveillance data it had gathered on people involved in litigation against them. If the decision stands, it could presumably be used by a number of companies; for example, a private investigator involved in a custody dispute could subpoena NSA surveillance records on the people involved in the dispute.
