The Calyx Institute

The Calyx Institute was founded by Nicholas Merrill, founder of the ISP Calyx Internet Access. Led by Merrill, Calyx is the only ISP to have successfully challenged and won a court case against the infamous "gag-order" National Security Letters in the US. These letters, which the US uses to demand user information from ISPs, are also accompanied by a life-long, open-ended gag order, preventing the ISP from ever disclosing the existence of the letter, or the information being requested. Calyx's case, known as Doe vs Ashcroft, dragged on for six years, but eventually led to a partial lifting of the gag order in 2010, along the judicial invalidation or narrowing of several controversial surveillance provisions.