Court Rules NSA Bulk Data Collection Can Resume
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ruled late Monday that the NSA may temporarily resume its bulk data collection of Americans’ phone records.
The ruling revives the NSA program that was halted earlier this month when a certain provision of the Patriot Act expired June 1. The government had sought to reinstate the section by passing the USA Freedom Act on June 2, which curtailed the government’s surveillance capabilities as a whole but sought to reinstate bulk data collection for six months time.
FreedomWorks, a libertarian advocacy group, filed a motion in the surveillance court following President Obama’s signing of the bill earlier this month, saying that the government did not have legal authority to resume the government program for the 180-day period.
In a court opinion released Tuesday, surveillance court Judge Michael W. Mosman rejected FreedomWorks’ challenge to the bill.
