Court ruling on NSA spying can't wait, activist says

Source: 
Author: 
Coverage Type: 

Conservative legal activist Larry Klayman wants the DC Circuit Court of Appeals to rule in his case challenging the National Security Agency’s bulk phone records collection program before Congress acts on renewing the Patriot Act. “Further violations of the U.S. Constitution cannot be countenanced,” Klayman wrote in the five-page legal request. “After sixteen months on appeal, this court ... has a duty to issue its decision now.” Klayman argued his case before the federal court in November, after a lower court judge previously concluded that the NSA’s data-gathering was “almost Orwellian.”

At the time, the panel of three judges appeared reluctant to agree with that ruling, and instead seemed likely to declare the NSA within its legal and constitutional bounds. “This court is not an inferior branch of government to Congress and should not defer to what might happen,” he wrote. “Indeed, if the court ruled now it would aid Congress in fashioning future legislation.” Still, it seems unlikely the appeals court will heed Klayman's call.


Court ruling on NSA spying can't wait, activist says