Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Michael S Schmidt
A federal judge in New York Friday ruled that the National Security Agencys programme that is systematically keeping phone records of all Americans is lawful,creating a conflict among lower courts and increasing the likelihood that the issue will be resolved by the Supreme Court.
In the ruling,Judge William H Pauley III,of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York,granted a motion filed by the federal government to dismiss a challenge to the programme brought by the American Civil Liberties Union,which had tried to halt the programme.
Judge Pauley said protections under the Fourth Amendment do not apply to records held by third parties,like phone companies.
This blunt tool only works because it collects everything, Judge Pauley said in the ruling. While robust discussions are underway across the nation,in Congress and at the White House,the question for this court is whether the governments bulk telephony metadata programme is lawful. This court finds it is, he added.
The ruling comes nearly two weeks after Judge Richard J Leon of Federal District Court for the District of Columbia said the programme most likely violated the Fourth Amendment. As part of the ruling,Judge Leon ordered the government to stop collecting data on two plaintiffs who brought the case against the government.
In his ruling,Judge Leon said the programme infringes on that degree of privacy that the founders enshrined in the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures.
While Judge Leon ordered the government to stop collecting data on the two plaintiffs,he stayed the ruling,giving the government time to appeal the decision.
