The U.S. National Security Agency's (NSA) bulk collection of phone records is unlawful, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday. The court rejected the government's long standing claim that bulk collection was permissible under the Patriot Act, ruling instead that the NSA acted without congressional approval. Writing on behalf of the three-judge panel that oversaw the case, circuit Judge Gerard Lynch described the NSA's actions as representing an “unprecedented contraction of the privacy expectations of all Americans.” He continued, "Perhaps such a contraction is required by national security needs in the face of the dangers of contemporary domestic and international terrorism.” "But we would expect such a momentous decision to be preceded by substantial debate, and expressed in unmistakable language. There is no evidence of such a debate," Lynch concluded. The court stopped short of ruling on whether the NSA had violated civil liberties, instead stating the agency's actions were simply never legal in the first place. The judges argued it “cannot be reasonably said” that lawmakers acquiesced to “a program of which many members of congress — and all members of the public — were not aware.” The judges also declined to order the program to be halted. Instead, they stated the upcoming expiration of the section of the Patriot Act used to justify bulk collection should force congress to take action. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) – which brought the case against the NSA – welcomed the outcome as a “resounding victory for the rule of law.” “For years, the government secretly spied on millions of innocent Americans based on a shockingly broad interpretation of its authority,” said ACLU staff attorney Alex Abdo. Abdo said the outcome showed the court rejected “the government’s theory that it may stockpile information on all of us in case that information proves useful in the future.” “Mass surveillance does not make us any safer, and it is fundamentally incompatible with the privacy necessary in a free society,” he said. The ACLU has been waging a legal battle against the NSA since June 2013, shortly after details of the agency's mass surveillance programs were made public by whistleblower Edward Snowden. In a series of leaked documents, Snowden revealed the NSA is vacuuming data on almost all U.S. phone calls every day, along with harvesting millions of emails and other forms of electronic communication. A previous court ruling in late 2013 found the ACLU lacked standing in the case. Although Thursday's ruling exclusively focused on bulk phone data collection, the court's decision has “far broader significance,” according to ACLU deputy legal director Jameel Jaffer. “The same defective legal theory that underlies this program underlies many of the government’s other mass surveillance programs,” Jaffer stated. He added, “The ruling warrants a reconsideration of all of those programs, and it underscores once again the need for truly systemic reform.” Source URL |
