Europe’s justice court is wrong about US intelligence programme

[Commentary] In September, an advocate-­general of the European Court of Justice issued an opinion in a case of exceptional significance for commercial relations between the US and the European Union. Washington is not a party to the proceedings and has no opportunity to make a direct submission to the court. We respect the EU’s legal process. However, the advocate-general’s judgment contains a number of inaccuracies, and before the court makes a final decision we want to set the record straight.

The lawsuit is based on press reports concerning a US foreign intelligence programme called PRISM, which, the complaint says, allows “unrestricted access to mass data stored on servers in the US”. The Irish High Court adopted this characterisation, as did the advocate-general, who said: “The evidence now available would admit of no other realistic conclusion.” Actually, the evidence demonstrates the contrary. PRISM is focused and reasonable. It does not involve “mass” and “unrestricted” collection of data, as the advocate-general says.

[Robert Litt is general counsel of the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence]