ACLU Appeals Decision Upholding NSA's Mass Surveillance | American Civil Liberties Union

ACLU Appeals Decision Upholding NSA's Mass Surveillance | American Civil Liberties Union:

 The ACLU filed an appeal on Thursday in New York challenging the dismissal of our lawsuit against the NSA's mass call-tracking program. Through the program, the government collects records on every call made and received in this country, allowing it to construct detailed maps of Americans' everyday lives.

In a decision with grave implications for civil liberties and privacy in a digital age, Judge William Pauley ruled last week that the government's telephony metadata program is lawful under Section 215 of the Patriot Act and under the Fourth Amendment. We strongly disagree on both counts, and we're in good company. Following Edward Snowden's disclosures, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), the lead author of the Patriot Act, introduced a bill to significantly rein in important aspects of NSA surveillance, and end the bulk collection of metadata under the mass call-tracking program. And in a lawsuit similar to ours filed in Washington, D.C., Judge Richard Leon ruled last month that the metadata program is very likely unconstitutional. "I have little doubt that the author of our Constitution, James Madison, who cautioned us to beware 'the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power,' would be aghast," he wrote.