A federal judge has ruled the FBI’s use of national security letters is unconstitutional. The decision by Judge Susan Illston of Federal District Court in San Francisco comes in the case of an unnamed telecom firm ordered by the government to provide subscriber information. Through the national security letters, the FBI can order businesses to provide information on their customers without any judicial review and without the customers’ knowledge. In her ruling, Judge Illston wrote that the letters create “too large a danger that speech is being unnecessarily restricted.” The ruling has been put on hold pending a Justice Department appeal.