US court defends its support for collecting phone data

The surveillance court that oversees the US government's massive collection of telephone data gave its fullest defense to date of why it considers the program lawful, despite the uproar after its existence was made public in June.

In an opinion dated Aug 29, Judge Claire Eagan of the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court wrote that the program did not violate the basic privacy rights of Americans and was authorized under the 2001 law known as the Patriot Act. "The court concludes that there are facts showing reasonable grounds to believe that the records sought are relevant to authorized investigations," wrote the judge, one of 11 who serve on the surveillance court. US officials have said the database is valuable in preventing attacks by al Qaeda and other militant groups, and that access to the database is limited to trained personnel who are investigating international terrorist organizations. Judge Eagan's opinion is notable for its sweeping grant of authority to the government, perhaps because lawyers from the Justice Department are the only ones who argue before the secretive court, said Alex Abdo, a staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union. "When the court has in front of it only the government's arguments, it's not surprising that the opinion reads like a brief written by the government," Abdo said.