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posted by janrinok on Wednesday July 15 2015, @05:27PM   Printer-friendly

Civil liberties groups asked a federal appeals court Tuesday to again strike down as unconstitutional a portion of a law used by the government to justify the collection and storage of Americans' phone records.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Union told the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan in court papers that it should rule that a law Congress passed on June 2 is being used illegally. The National Security Agency has relied on the law and a ruling by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to continue data collection.

The ACLU also urged the court to immediately block the collection of call data related to the civil rights groups and to return the case to the lower court, where a judge could rely on the appeals court's findings to ban the collection of records more widely.

A three-judge panel of the 2nd Circuit in May struck down the law but did not immediately block phone data collection. It said the unprecedented and unwarranted bulk collection of Americans' phone records was illegal because it wasn't authorized by Congress. It urged Congress to define the issue.

In its new filing, the ACLU said Congress has not expanded the government's statutory authority and it would be "bizarre" for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to conclude that bulk collection was implicitly endorsed by Congress because it did not expressly prohibit it.
[...]
The government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.


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  • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 15 2015, @05:42PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 15 2015, @05:42PM (#209474)

    Look at me guys... *this* time it will work!

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by AnonymousCowardNoMore on Wednesday July 15 2015, @06:16PM

    by AnonymousCowardNoMore (5416) on Wednesday July 15 2015, @06:16PM (#209489)

    Don't hate on the ACLU for this. Going to court doesn't improve anything but ignoring it and not going just makes the situation deteriorate faster. The laws of illegal/immoral spying are the laws of thermodynamics: The First Law is that you can't win; the Second Law is that you can't break even and the Third Law is that you can't get out of the game.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 15 2015, @07:00PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 15 2015, @07:00PM (#209514)

      Your ideas are of interest to me and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 15 2015, @11:49PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 15 2015, @11:49PM (#209690)

      How about we hate on you for promoting apathetic cynicism... Sure its hard to change the world, but the civil rights movement did it. Your buckling in to hopelessness makes you either a coward or a shill, which is it?

      • (Score: 2, Informative) by AnonymousCowardNoMore on Thursday July 16 2015, @02:52PM

        by AnonymousCowardNoMore (5416) on Thursday July 16 2015, @02:52PM (#209956)

        Why don't you tell me: Am I an NSA shill for calling their actions illegal and immoral, or am I a coward for saying they should be challenged? Corruption eventually overcomes all empires. You could try to ignore this fact and try to live in a fantasy, or more likely suffer depression when you are finally forced to face it. But it is better that you acknowledge the corruption and cruelty of the world and make the best that you can out of whatever you can influence, regardless.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 17 2015, @02:56PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 17 2015, @02:56PM (#210453)

        Sure its hard to change the world, but the civil rights movement did it.

        Because racism is totally a thing of the past and no longer happens now, right? Just like women's suffrage ended misogyny. The civil rights movement did not change the world, it only changed some laws which many people still have trouble accepting.