Court Revives Defunct NSA Mass Surveillance Program
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Published on 07-01-2015 05:58 AM
The NSA’s phone dragnet is back—for now.
BY Dustin Volz
June 30, 2015
A federal court has revived the National Security Agency's bulk collection of Americans' phone records, a program that lapsed earlier this month when sections of the Patriot Act briefly expired.
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court approved a government request to renew the dragnet collection of U.S. phone metadata for an additional five months—a timeframe allowed under the Freedom Act, a newly enacted surveillance reform law that calls for an eventual end to the mass spying program exposed by Edward Snowden two years ago.
The Senate passed the Freedom Act days after allowing the June 1 expiration of the Patriot Act's three spying provisions, including Section 215, which the NSA uses to justify its bulk collection. The court order renews the surveillance until November 29, 2015—six months after enactment of the reform law.
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Former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli was appointed to serve as a privacy consultant for consideration of the government's renewal application. The Freedom Act requires that the FISA Court consult a panel of privacy experts for certain cases, but that panel has not yet been constructed. In its absence, Cuccinelli was selected for this particular consideration.
Cuccinelli, a Republican who unsuccessfully ran for Virginia governor in 2013, filed a legal challenge this month with the FISA Court asking it to not grant the Obama administration's request to revive the NSA's program. That challenge, which was joined by the conservative group FreedomWorks, was rejected.
More:
http://www.nationaljournal.com/tech/...ogram-20150630