Court rules NSA spying is illegal

Submitted by gjohnsit on Thu, 05/07/2015 - 11:13am

This is HUGE!

(CNN)A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that the National Security Agency's controversial collection of Americans' phone records, the subject of documents leaked by Edward Snowden, is not legal under the Patriot Act.
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.
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. "Until such times as it does so, however, we decline to deviate from widely accepted interpretations of well-established legal standards. "

A more full quote here.

The laws that the US government used to defend its vast surveillance program "have never been interpreted to authorize anything approaching the breadth of the sweeping surveillance at issue here," the opinion from the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit stated...
From the opinion:

Search warrants and document subpoenas typically seek the records of a particular individual or corporation under investigation, and cover particular time periods when the events under investigation occurred. The orders at issue here contain no such limits ... The records demanded are not those of suspects under investigation, or of people or businesses that have contact with such subjects, or of people or businesses that have contact with others who are in contact with the subjects — they extend to every record that exists, and indeed to records that do not yet exist ... The government can point to no grand jury subpoena that is remotely comparable to the real‐time data collection undertaken under this program.

So let's be clear:

1) the federal government has been breaking the law for at least a decade.
2) it's only a matter of time until this ruling is also applied to CIA and DEA spying programs.
3) Snowden is now officially a whistleblower by the legal definition of blowing the whistle on illegal activities.
4) this would never have happened if it hadn't been for Snowden.

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Submitted by mimi on Thu, 05/07/2015 - 12:11pm
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Appeals court strikes down government's phone surveillance program

The 97-page opinion sidestepped the constitutional question, other than to note that it raises "one of the most difficult issues in Fourth Amendment jurisprudence: the extent to which modern technology alters our traditional expectations of privacy."

"For years, the government secretly spied on millions of innocent Americans based on a shockingly broad interpretation of its authority," said ACLU attorney Alex Abdo, who argued the case before the three-judge panel in September. "The court rightly rejected the government's theory that it may stockpile information on all of us in case that information proves useful in the future."

The court did not order an immediate halt to the data collection, because the law that the government claimed authorized it is set to expire next month, and Congress is debating an extension or replacement.

"In light of the asserted national security interests at stake, we deem it prudent to pause to allow an opportunity for debate in Congress that may (or may not) profoundly alter the legal landscape," the court wrote.
.....
The case ultimately could be headed to the Supreme Court, particularly if another federal appeals court reaches a different conclusion. The government's appeal of District Judge Richard Leon's initial decision was argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in November. Another challenge was argued before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in December.

The phone surveillance program, which was among those Snowden disclosed in 2013, already is on life support. President Obama has asked Congress for changes that would leave the data in the hands of private phone companies, not the government.

"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," said Ned Price, spokesman for the White House National Security Council. "We continue to work closely with members of Congress from both parties to do just that."

Why the heck do they want to allow private phone companies to collect and store those data? What kind of difference would that make?

I never understand when something like this is really over. Everything can be challenged, even a SCOTUS ruling, or not?

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Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Thu, 05/07/2015 - 1:52pm
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In the case of the NSA, however, no branch of government can stop their activities. Every single person in the Federal government has been compromised by damaging data that the NSA has gathered about them and their families. And Americans have no legal right to privacy, so they cannot stop them. Thus, the NSA will continue on by its own authority.

This is why the world is currently building a new Internet architecture that bypasses the United States. This is also why two new global banks have formed — the New Development Bank (BRICS) and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB China). Between them they cover the world. This is why two new SWIFT-type banking systems were formed that covers the rest of the world but excludes the United States and its toothless sanctions. This is why the Petrodollar was killed and why, soon, the US Dollar will no longer be accepted for settling international trade. It will only have value inside the United States.

It's the only way to stop the US murder-sprees taking place throughout the world.

And, it all started with Snowden and the NSA.

It will be decades before history will come to realize that was the tipping point.

(And, someday, Occupied Japan and Occupied Germany will no longer be occupied.)

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Submitted by lotlizard on Fri, 05/08/2015 - 12:48am
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Japan and Germany must remain occupied, because U.S. Armed Moral Leadership™ is the only thing standing between them and the rise of a new Mojo Tojo or Giga-Bitler.

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Submitted by mimi on Thu, 05/07/2015 - 12:16pm
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German spies curb Internet snooping for US after row: sources. Oh well, I wonder what it really means...

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Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Thu, 05/07/2015 - 1:05pm
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Edward Snowden and Michael Hayden, NSA Director

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The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato