ACLU sues to block extension of NSA dragnet program — RT USA

The temporary extension of the National Security Agency’s bulk phone records collection authority by the secretive court that oversees US government spying should be revoked, since a federal court ruled the program unconstitutional, according to the ACLU.

 

In a lawsuit filed Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union said the Second Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling on May 7 – which said that the NSA program that sweeps up metadata of all US phone calls is illegal – should be sufficient to shut down the program, effectively overruling the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) decision that reinstated the dragnet program until late November.

 

The FISC renewed the bulk collection program in late June, saying the lapsed spying powers vested in the Patriot Act – which expired without renewal on June 1 – did not restrict the court from reauthorizing the program for six months before a new spying law took effect. The court is often seen as a “rubber stamp” for US government spying requests.

 

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