Federal judge holds NSA telephone surveillance unconstitutional
A federal judge in Washington, DC on Monday declared that the National Security Agency’s collection of telephone “metadata” from virtually every call made to, from or within the United States violates the Fourth Amendment, the constitutional provision protecting the “right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.” Judge Richard J. Leon granted the plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction, ordering the government to stop collecting data on their telephone calls and to destroy their call records. But he stayed his ruling pending an appeal by the Obama administration, which argued in court in defense of the program. This effectively allows the government to continue spying on the calls of the plaintiffs while the case winds its way through the federal appeals courts and, very likely, makes its way to the US Supreme Court, a process that could take years.