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Federal Court Rules NSA Bulk Data Collection Illegal

posted by CoolHand on Thursday May 07 2015, @05:42PM   Printer-friendly
from the yay-for-the-courts dept.

AnonTechie writes:

Wired is reporting:

THE UNITED STATES Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled on Thursday that the bulk collection of phone metadata by the NSA was illegal under federal law.

Rather than address the constitutionality of the program, the court took a much simpler tack. The decision concludes that the practice is beyond the scope of what the US Congress had in mind when it passed section 215 of the Patriot Act after September 11, 2001.

The case was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and had been dismissed in 2013 by a lower court. Today's ruling vacates that decision, and could pave the way for a full legal challenge of NSA collection methods, which were first brought to light by Edward Snowden.

Also at: The Intercept, EFF, El Reg, BBC, NYT.

 
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  • (Score: 2) by frojack on Friday May 08 2015, @12:42AM

    by frojack (1554) on Friday May 08 2015, @12:42AM (#180122) Journal

    Its the Courts rule on the laws.

    Regardless of what Congress may or may not do, THIS law was just "declared illegal".
    The court can't make pronouncements on future laws. Even when future laws are passed
    they can't just decide to review it.

    Someone with standing has to fight it through the various courts. In this case, after fighting
    their case through the courts for years, they are told they can't have an injunction
    and their case is tossed out. They have to start from scratch.

    The court said, yeah, this should not have happened because it wasn't ever authorized in law,
    but you get nothing, and your suit is tossed out. And if congress votes to reauthorize?
    Still nothing, still no injunction, and these plaintiffs won't have standing to even appeal
    because their suit was dismissed.

    I'm pretty sure if you go back and read the constitution, (something you haven't done in quite a while it appears)
    you would find that you shouldn't have to take your lawsuits to Congress in the hopes of getting
    them to change their mind and admit they were wrong all along.

       

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