ACLU to appellate court: Please halt NSA’s resumed bulk data collection

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has asked one of the nation’s top appellate courts to order the National Security Agency to stop its bulk records collection, which resumed in limited form in June as part of the USA Freedom Act. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals had previously ruled in ACLU v. Clapper in May 2015 that the dragnet data collection went beyond the scope of what was authorized by Congress. “This dragnet surveillance program should never have been launched, and it should certainly be terminated now,” said Jameel Jaffer, deputy legal director of the ACLU. “Not even the government contends anymore that the program has been effective, and the Second Circuit has already concluded that the program is illegal. It’s a needless and unlawful intrusion into the privacy rights of millions of innocent Americans.”

The previous collection program was stopped temporarily when Section 215 of the Patriot Act expired -- but with the passage of USA Freedom on June 2, 2015, the government can access the phone records from the telecommunication companies with an individualized court order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC). The FISC allowed the government to continue its existing bulk collection as it transitions to compliance with the USA Freedom Act.