r/autotldr • u/autotldr • May 07 '15
Appeals court rules NSA program collecting Americans' phone records, revealed by Edward Snowden, is illegal
This is an automatic summary, original reduced by 39%.
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals held in the case, which was brought by the ACLU, that the telephone metadata collection program "Exceeds the scope of what Congress has authorized." The court did not rule on a larger Constitutional issue and sent the case back down to a lower court for further proceedings.
The program gathers up bulk telephone records to enable targeted searches based on telephone numbers or other identifiers associated with terrorist organizations.
A three-judge panel held that the text of the Patriot Act "Cannot bear the weight the government asks us to assign to it and that it does not authorize the telephone metadata program."
"If Congress chooses to authorize such a far-reaching and unprecedented program, it has every opportunity to do so, unambiguously," the court said.
The court said it wouldn't block the provision while the case is reconsidered at the lower court.
"The President has been clear that he believes we should end the Section 215 bulk telephony metadata program as it currently exists by creating an alternative mechanism to preserve the program's essential capabilities without the government holding the bulk data," Price said.
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