Chairman Feinstein welcomes Supreme Court ruling on NSA metadata snooping

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) said she would "welcome" a Supreme Court review of a National Security Agency surveillance program that a district court judge ruled is likely unconstitutional.

“Only the Supreme Court can resolve the question on the constitutionality of the NSA’s program,” said Sen Feinstein, a supporter of the NSA’s bulk collection of phone metadata. “I welcome a Supreme Court review since it has been more than 30 years since the court’s original decision of constitutionality, and I believe it is crucial to settling the issue once and for all. In the meantime, the call records program remains in effect.” The Supreme Court declined without comment to hear a separate case regarding the program in November. Sen Feinstein said the program has been deemed constitutional numerous times by the Foreign Intelligence Security Act (FISA) court and earlier this year in a “real world terrorist case.” “Clearly we have competing decisions from those of at least three different courts,” she said.