An examination of case numbers of entirely sealed dockets in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, suggests to the ACLU that there were four Justice Department records demands issued in the same manner as a December 2010 demand sent to Twitter, which seeks information on three current and former WikiLeaks associates.

On Thursday, the ACLU, in conjunction with the EFF, asked a federal judge to open those dockets to the public.

“[T]here is still no publicly available docket with individual docket entries that gives the public notice that any applications or orders granting or denying those applications, or any challenges to such applications or orders, have been filed under seal,” the ACLU wrote in an appeal Thursday. “Regardless of whether it is appropriate to maintain certain documents under seal, the absence of a public docket–somewhere–containing docket entries identifying any other applications, orders, motions, or other documents is simply not permissible.”

The Justice Department has been seeking transaction records on the Twitter accounts since December under 18 USC 2703(d), a 1994 amendment to the Stored Communications Act that allows law enforcement access to non-content internet records, such as transaction information, without demonstrating the “probable cause” needed for a full-blown search warrant.

A 2703(d) order is issued when prosecutors provide a judge with “specific and articulable facts” that show the information they seek is relevant and material to a criminal investigation. The people targeted in the records demand don’t themselves have to be suspected of criminal wrongdoing.

The targets of the Twitter-records demand are WikiLeaks’ official Twitter account, and the accounts of three people connected to the group: Seattle coder and activist Jacob Appelbaum; Birgitta Jonsdottir, a member of Iceland’s parliament; and Dutch businessman Rop Gonggrijp. Jonsdottir and Gonggrijp helped WikiLeaks prepare the release of a classified U.S. Army video published last year as “Collateral Murder,” and Appelbaum is the group’s U.S. representative.

The records demand started as part of an ongoing grand jury investigation probing WikiLeaks for its high-profile leaks of classified U.S. material. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange hasn’t challenged the demand for records pertaining to the organization’s feed, but the other three have been fighting the case with the help of the ACLU and the EFF. A decision on the Twitter-records demand is pending.

Prosecutors are looking for records showing when the accounts sent direct messages to one another, and from what internet IP addresses. They are not seeking the content of the messages, nor information on other Twitter users who follow the accounts.

While some have speculated that other companies have received 2703(d) orders besides Twitter, no other companies have gone public with such a demand.

The Twitter-records demand was initially issued with the case number of the WikiLeaks grand jury probe, 1:10-GJ-03793. But when the Justice Department agreed to unseal the demand, it was moved to a public docket. The ACLU argues that procedural move illustrates that the demands are not protected by the federal rules governing grand jury secrecy.

The Thursday filing appeals a second shuffling of the Twitter court filings to yet another case number, ordered by a U.S. magistrate judge on May 4. A hearing on Thursday’s appeal is set for June 24 before U.S. District Court Judge Liam O’Grady.

Secret WikiLeaks Dockets