NSA's phone spying program ruled illegal by appeals court

[jimmy olsen]

Fuck yeah!

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/07/us-usa-security-nsa-idUSKBN0NS1IN20150507

NSA's phone spying program ruled illegal by appeals court

NEW YORK  |  By Jonathan Stempel


A U.S. spying program that systematically collects millions of Americans' phone records is illegal, a federal appeals court ruled on Thursday, putting pressure on Congress to quickly decide whether to replace or end the controversial anti-terrorism surveillance.

Ruling on a program revealed by former government security contractor Edward Snowden, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said the Patriot Act did not authorize the National Security Agency to collect Americans' calling records in bulk.

Circuit Judge Gerard Lynch wrote for a three-judge panel that Section 215, which addresses the FBI's ability to gather business records, could not be interpreted to have permitted the NSA to collect a "staggering" amount of phone records, contrary to claims by the Bush and Obama administrations.

"Such expansive development of government repositories of formerly private records would be an unprecedented contraction of the privacy expectations of all Americans," Lynch wrote in a 97-page decision. "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."

The appeals court did not rule on whether the surveillance violated the U.S. Constitution.

It also declined to halt the program, noting that parts of the Patriot Act including Section 215 expire on June 1.

Lynch said it was "prudent" to give Congress a chance to decide what surveillance is permissible, given the national security interests at stake.

Enacted after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the Patriot Act gives the government broad tools to investigate terrorism.

Thursday's decision voided a December 2013 ruling in which U.S. District Judge William Pauley in Manhattan found the NSA program lawful. The appeals court sent the case back to him for further review.

Snowden, a former NSA contractor who lives as a fugitive in Russia, in June 2013 exposed the agency's collection of "bulk telephony metadata." This data includes the existence and duration of calls made, but not the content of conversations.

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said at a Senate budget hearing on Thursday that NSA data collection was a "vital tool in our national security arsenal," and that she was unaware of privacy violations under its existing program.

Snowden could not immediately be reached for comment.

The 2nd Circuit is the first federal appeals court to rule on the NSA program's legality. Federal appeals courts in Washington, D.C. and California are also weighing the matter.

While the government could appeal Thursday's decision, it will likely wait for Congress.

If Congress revamps the NSA program, then courts may need to review what it does. And if Congress reauthorizes Section 215, there could be further litigation that may ultimately require the Supreme Court's attention.

Scott Vernick, chair of the privacy and data security practice at Fox Rothschild in Philadelphia, said Congress may struggle to reach a consensus given how "the pendulum in this country is swinging toward privacy."

Ned Price, a spokesman for the White House's National Security Council, said President Barack Obama wants to end the NSA program, and is encouraged by the "good progress" on Capitol Hill to find an alternative that preserves its "essential capabilities."

Last week, the House Judiciary Committee voted 25-2 to end the bulk collection of telephone data through the USA Freedom Act. The bill is expected to pass the full House, and the White House has signaled support for it.

While a similar bipartisan bill is pending in the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Intelligence Committee chair Richard Burr, both Republicans, have proposed extending Section 215 and other parts of the Patriot Act through 2020.

Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat and Senate minority leader, rejected that alternative, calling it "the height of irresponsibility to extend these illegal spying powers when we could pass bipartisan reform into law instead."

The existing NSA program has repeatedly been approved in secret by a national security court established under a 1978 law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

"FISA has been critically important in keeping us safe in America," McConnell said on Thursday.

[Ideologue]

Bummer.

(Edited to amend: Thought this was something else, but it's just the metadata collection, which is probably not unconstitutional and certainly not a terrible idea nor particularly threatening to innocents, in an otherwise free country.)

[Darth Wagtaros]

It'll continue.

[Ideologue]

Well, that's a bummer too, since the NSA should be as open and transparent to us as we are to them.

[The Minsky Moment]

Bummer.

(Edited to amend: Thought this was something else, but it's just the metadata collection, which is probably not unconstitutional and certainly not a terrible idea nor particularly threatening to innocents, in an otherwise free country.)

Good thing the court didn't rule on constitutionality then!   

[Ideologue]

I knowwww.

[lustindarkness]

I don't mind the NSA checking my emails, just pisses me off they don't go ahead and respond to some of them and clean out the spam for me.

[The Minsky Moment]

I knowwww.

So why is it a "bummer"?
Didn't realize you had such strong feelings about statutory construction.

[Ideologue]

Partly because it's a valid program, partly because pushback on the surveillance state pushes it further into the shadows where it doesn't belong, and partly because it could lead to defunding domestic sigint and delay development of the infrastructure development for the total intercept of all communication.

[Habbaku]

[grumbler]

Partly because it's a valid program, partly because pushback on the surveillance state pushes it further into the shadows where it doesn't belong, and partly because it could lead to defunding domestic sigint and delay development of the infrastructure development for the total intercept of all communication.

I'm sure there are negatives, as well.

[The Minsky Moment]

Partly because it's a valid program, partly because pushback on the surveillance state pushes it further into the shadows where it doesn't belong, and partly because it could lead to defunding domestic sigint and delay development of the infrastructure development for the total intercept of all communication.

Let's assume the court is right and the program exceeds statutory authority.  Then in what sense is it valid?  How does observing that the program doesn't conform with the law constitute a "pushback" on "the surveillance state" (whatever the hell that is), how does it defund domestic signals intelligence?

[MadImmortalMan]

Well, that's a bummer too, since the NSA should be as open and transparent to us as we are to them.

I do NOT want to see their dick pics.

[Ed Anger]

Well, that's a bummer too, since the NSA should be as open and transparent to us as we are to them.

I do NOT want to see their dick pics.

Clapper sent you some

Also:

Clappergoatse.jpg

[Ed Anger]

NSA Lemon Party