Privacy, civil liberties board to consider NSA surveillance programs

The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board will hold its first-ever public workshop to discuss the controversial surveillance programs used by the National Security Agency to cull phone records and monitor Internet traffic.

The independent board will hold a series of panels throughout the day that will examine the surveillance programs through a legal, tech and policy lens. This is the first time the board has been in action after it faced a set of delays with Senate confirmations and will be the first test on whether it can influence policymaking. David Medine, the chairman of the board who was just confirmed in May, will start off the daylong event with opening remarks. Top legal and civil liberties experts will participate on the panels, including American Civil Liberties Union Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer and former Justice Department official James Baker. Also participating during one of the panels will be James Robertson, who formerly served on the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that's at the heart of scrutiny over the surveillance programs.

Marc Rotenberg, the executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), said the PCLOB "plays an absolutely vital role in raising issues that need to be raised" in regards to the government's efforts to conduct surveillance aimed at thwarting terrorist attacks.