Judge Deals a Blow to N.S.A. Data Collection Program
Source: New York Times
By CHARLIE SAVAGENOV. 9, 2015
WASHINGTON A federal judge on Monday partly blocked the National Security Agencys program that systematically collects Americans domestic phone records in bulk just weeks before the agency was scheduled to shut it down and replace it. The judge said the program was most likely unconstitutional.
In a separate case challenging the program, a federal appeals court in New York on Oct. 30 had declined to weigh in on the constitutional issues, saying it would be imprudent to interfere with an orderly transition to a replacement system after Nov. 29.
But on Monday, in a 43-page ruling, Judge Richard J. Leon of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia wrote that the constitutional issues were too important to leave unanswered in the history of the disputed program, which traces back to the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and came to light in 2013 in leaks by Edward J. Snowden, the former intelligence contractor.
With the governments authority to operate the bulk telephony metadata program quickly coming to an end, this case is perhaps the last chapter in the judiciarys evaluation of this particular programs compatibility with the Constitution, he wrote. It will not, however, be the last chapter in the ongoing struggle to balance privacy rights and national security interests under our Constitution in an age of evolving technological wizardry.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/10/us/politics/judge-deals-a-blow-to-nsa-phone-surveillance-program.html?_r=0
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)This judgment reminds me of the story, "The Emperor Has No Clothes."
The NSA's expansive collection of data and snooping based on a case decided long ago before the internet and the information available from the internet did not exist is just absurd.
The NSA's programs violate the Fourth Amendment (as well as other provisions in the Constitution), and finally we have a court with the guts to admit it.
Thank you, Judge Leon.
My expert analysis.
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)under our Constitution in an age of evolving technological wizardry.
And shame on those authoritarians among us that would silence whistle-blowers.
Joe Chi Minh
(15,229 posts)blackspade
(10,056 posts)drray23
(7,633 posts)However I doubt they will really stop. Hayden did not hesitate to lie to congress during hearings and did not suffer any consequences. I dont doubt for a second they will keep doing it.