WASHINGTON: The US government is expected to appeal a judge’s decision that the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of millions of Americans’ telephone records is likely unconstitutional, in a case where the Supreme Court will likely have the last word.
US District Court Judge Richard Leon put his decision to grant an injunction against the NSA on hold Monday. He said he was staying the ruling pending appeal “in light of the significant national security interests at stake in this case and the novelty of the constitutional issues.”
The collection program was disclosed by former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden, provoking a heated national and international debate.
Robert F. Turner, a professor at the University of Virginia’s Center for National Security Law, predicted Leon’s decision was highly likely to be reversed on appeal. He said the collection of telephone metadata — the issue in Monday’s ruling — already has been addressed and resolved by the Supreme Court.
In his ruling, Leon granted a preliminary injunction against the collecting of the phone records of two men who had challenged the program, and said any such records for the men should be destroyed. The plaintiffs are Larry Klayman, a conservative lawyer, and Charles Strange, the father of a cryptologist technician who was killed in Afghanistan when his helicopter was shot down in 2011. The son worked for the NSA and support personnel for Navy SEAL Team Six.
Snowden offers to help Brazil
US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden offered to help Brazil defeat US spying Tuesday but in an open letter said he needs permanent political asylum to do so.
The move was widely interpreted as a request for asylum in Brazil, including by the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper, which published the letter in both English and Portuguese.
Snowden, by downloading a vast trove of classified documents while working as an intelligence contractor for the NSA, has revealed a vast NSA program that culls information from telephone calls and e-mails around the world, including in Brazil.
In the letter, he writes that US officials justify the actions by saying they aim “to keep you safe.” But he says “these programs were never about terrorism: they’re about economic spying, social control, and diplomatic manipulation. They’re about power.” Now, he insists, “the tide is turning.” “Now, the whole world is listening back, and speaking out, too.”
