NSA Phone Surveillance Is Lawful, Federal Judge Rules

A federal judge in New York ruled that the National Security Agency’s program that is systematically keeping phone records of all Americans is lawful, creating a conflict among lower courts and increasing the likelihood that the issue will be resolved by the Supreme Court.

In the ruling, Judge William Pauley III, of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, granted a motion filed by the federal government to dismiss a challenge to the program brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, which had tried to halt the program. Judge Pauley said that protections under the Fourth Amendment do not apply to records held by third parties, like phone companies. “This blunt tool only works because it collects everything,” Judge Pauley said in the ruling. “While robust discussions are underway across the nation, in Congress and at the White House, the question for this court is whether the government’s bulk telephony metadata program is lawful. This court finds it is,” he added. A spokesman for the Justice Department said, “We are pleased the court found the NSA's bulk telephony metadata collection program to be lawful.” He declined to comment further. According to The Guardian, in his ruling, the judge said the phone data-collection system could have helped investigators connect the dots before the attacks. He dismissed the lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union.

[Dec 27]