For the second time in as many years, a federal judge on Monday called the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of Americans’ telephone records likely unconstitutional, ordering a halt to the surveillance program three weeks before it is set to be phased out.The immediate impact of the decision by U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon of Washington was not clear, although civil liberties groups called it an important judicial rebuke of what Leon called an “astounding” and “unparalleled” example of dragnet surveillance.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/us-judge-again-rules-nsa-collection-of-phone-data-is-likely-unconstitutional/2015/11/09/843cbf5e-84ab-11e5-8ba6-cec48b74b2a7_story.htmlAlso see:Judge Deals a Blow to N.S.A. Data Collection Program
A federal judge on Monday partly blocked the National Security Agency’s program that systematically collects Americans’ domestic phone records in bulk just weeks before the agency was scheduled to shut it down and replace it. The judge said the program was most likely unconstitutional.In a separate case challenging the program, a federal appeals court in New York on Oct. 30 had declined to weigh in on the constitutional issues, saying it would be imprudent to interfere with an orderly transition to a replacement system after Nov. 29.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/10/us/politics/judge-deals-a-blow-to-nsa-phone-surveillance-program.html