NSA collection of US phone records 'lawful', judge rules
It is also expected to bolster Barack Obama as he reviews the wide-ranging recommendations to limit NSA operations by a task force he set up in the wake of the Snowden revelations. The president is expected to reject some of the more dramatic proposed curbs when he announces his decision next month.
In Friday's ruling, Judge William Pauley dismissed a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union demanding a halt to the programme.
'The natural tension between protecting the nation and preserving civil liberty is squarely presented by the Government's bulk telephony metadata collection programme,' he wrote in his 53-page ruling. 'This blunt tool only works because it collects everything. While robust discussions are underway across the nation, in Congress and at the White House, the question for this court is whether the programme is lawful. This court finds it is.'
His ruling was in marked contrast to the one delivered earlier this month by Judge Richard Leon in the federal district court in Washington.
Judge Leon said that the programme 'almost certainly' violates the US constitution by infringing the rights to privacy enshrined in the Constitution's fourth amendment 'which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures'. He ordered the government to stop collecting data on two plaintiffs who brought the case against the government.
But Judge Pauley said that he found no evidence that the government used any of the bulk 'metadata' for any purpose other than investigating and disrupting terrorist attacks.
'No doubt, the bulk telephony metadata collection programme vacuums up information about virtually every telephone call to, from, or within the United States. That is by design, as it allows the NSA to detect relationships so attenuated and ephemeral they would otherwise escape notice,' he wrote. 'As the September 11th attacks demonstrate, the cost of missing such a thread can be horrific.'
He said the data collection programme was part of the US government's adaptation 'to confront a new enemy: a terror network capable of orchestrating attacks across the world'.
Post a Comment for "NSA collection of US phone records 'lawful', judge rules"