NSA's phone spying program ruled illegal by appeals court

[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.

Let's assume the court is right and the program exceeds statutory authority.  Then in what sense is it valid?

Valid in the sense of a good idea, even if (evidently) it's not authorized by statute.  Congress could reactivate it with new legislation, and should.  (Someone evidently thought the act did authorize it, or at least could be argued to authorize it.)

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?

Ideology has no bearing on court opinions, or the general tenor of "awesome! no more NSA looking at my dick pics! (even though that's not what this program does)"?  Anyway, Congress will probably not reactivate it, because of the false conflation of liberty and privacy baked into the American legal system and the American psyche (as well as the false tension between liberty and security, when each are in fact largely identical--i.e., the freedom not to be blown up, the freedom not to be shot by police, the freedom not to be sexually abused by someone who has authority over you, etc.).  Surveillance is, sadly, unpopular.  And that unpopularity is why it is done in secret or at least in the shadows, which makes it prone to abuse, in a self-fulfilling prophecy.

A court decision saying that certain tools cannot be used means simply that such tools may not be used, and therefore development of them is pointless and the creation of them a waste.  For example, if SCOTUS ruled the use of nukes or electric chairs or whatever was illegal, would we (even could we) still build them?

[Syt]

NSA Lemon Party

[Ed Anger]

I laughed

[jimmy olsen]

Yay! 

http://theweek.com/speedreads/568620/nsa-destroy-nearly-10-years-phone-records

HOLD THE PHONE
NSA will destroy nearly 10 years of phone records

The National Security Agency will destroy nearly 10 years of phone records collected from millions of Americans, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said Monday.

When President Obama signed into law a revised version of the Patriot Act in June following contentious congressional debate, the NSA lost its legal ability to collect the bulk records. Going forward, intelligence agencies must seek targeted records directly from phone companies. Since the amendment became law, White House officials have been discussing whether to keep the existing records going forward.

The bulk collection program, first implemented under President George W. Bush, came under scrutiny after whistleblower Edward Snowden brought the policy to the public's attention in 2013.

Phone records connected to pending lawsuits will be preserved. Julie Kliegman

[Syt]

Records expunged: Years 1913 - 1922.

[DontSayBanana]

Records expunged: Years 1913 - 1922.

Syt delivers.