Federal appeals court says NSA phone program isn't authorized by Congress
A federal court has made a limited ruling against the NSA’s mass collection of phone records. In a filing posted today, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals writes that the phone records program “exceeds the scope of what Congress has authorized,” overturning a decision from 2013.
The American Civil Liberties Union brought its case against Director of National Intelligence James Clapper after Edward Snowden revealed that a government surveillance program was collecting metadata — including time stamps, phone numbers, and durations of calls — for millions of phone numbers. The NSA justified the program under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which allows the government to collect “tangible things” relevant to a national security…
Source:: The Verge
