A federal appeals court on thursday says U.S. spying program that systematically collects millions of Americans' phone records is illegal.
This pronoucement put pressure on Congress to quickly decide on whether to replace or end the controversial anti-terrorism surveillance.
Ruling on a program revealed by former government security contractor Edward Snowden, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said the Patriot Act did not authorize the National Security Agency to collect Americans' calling records in bulk.
Circuit Judge Gerard Lynch wrote for a three-judge panel that Section 215, which addresses the FBI's ability to gather business records, could not be interpreted to have permitted the NSA to collect a "staggering" amount of phone records, contrary to claims by the Bush and Obama administrations.
However, the appeals court did not rule on whether the surveillance violated the U.S. Constitution and also declined to stop the program, noting that parts of the Patriot Act including Section 215 expire on June 1.
Lynch said it was "prudent" to give Congress a chance to decide what surveillance is permissible, given the national security interests at stake.
Enacted after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the Patriot Act gives the government broad tools to investigate terrorism.
Thursday's decision voided a December 2013 ruling in which U.S. District Judge William Pauley in Manhattan found the NSA program lawful. The appeals court sent the case back to him for further review.
NEXT STEP IN CONGRESS
Snowden, a former NSA contractor who lives as a fugitive in Russia, in June 2013 exposed the agency's collection of "bulk telephony metadata." This data includes the existence and duration of calls made, but not the content of conversations.
Culled from reuters.com
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