In response, Member of the Bundestag David Schliesing, media policy spokesperson for Die Linke parliamentary group, submitted an inquiry to the Bundestag’s Scientific Service. The service has now unequivocally determined that the “Haber procedure” is unconstitutional.

In 2017, Emily Haber, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of the Interior, drafted a decree that updated an existing regulation governing such inquiries. According to a parliamentary inquiry by Die Linke parliamentary group in the German Bundestag, ministries have used this procedure to vet 1,200 civil society organizations and 1,300 individuals since 2020, as reported by Netzpolitik.org.

Two constitutional principles are violated by the Haber procedure. First, the transmission of personal data by a federal ministry as part of the Haber procedure violates the right to informational self-determination of the individuals concerned. There is no legal basis for this. Furthermore, the individuals concerned have not previously had a right to information* from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. This constitutes a violation of the guarantee of legal recourse enshrined in the Basic Law.