A group of journalists, attorneys and human rights activists are challenging revisions to US surveillance laws that they say are hampering their ability to do their work. On Friday, members of the group told a federal appeals court they’ve been forced to forgo communicating by phone or email out of fear of government surveillance. The revised 2008 surveillance law dropped a requirement that the government identify the subjects of its surveillance. Joanne Mariner of Human Rights Watch says she’s made three recent trips to meet former CIA prisoners in Jordan to avoid speaking to them by phone.