Federal appeals court rules the NSA's mass surveillance program was possibly unconstitutional and the program's “bulk collection” of metadata was illegal
This ruling closes the loop opened in 2015, when an appeals panel first held that the Patriot Act did not authorize the NSA's bulk telephone-metadata program — only for the FISA Court to let collection temporarily resume and the DC Circuit to vacate the blocking order months later. By early 2016 the agency was already winding down: its transparency reporting showed the shift to a non-bulk collection program under the USA Freedom Act.
The new decision matters because it goes beyond statutory authorization, calling the program itself illegal and possibly unconstitutional — and it lands against a record of compliance failures, including the NSA's unauthorized collection of call and text metadata in 2019, the second such incident reported.
First-order effects
The NSA now carries a judicial finding that its flagship mass-surveillance program violated the Constitution, not just the Patriot Act, raising the stakes for any litigation over the billions of call records swept up before the program ended.
Second-order effects
The ruling compounds a string of adverse oversight outcomes — the FISA court had already deemed tens of thousands of FBI searches from 2017–2018 illegal — strengthening the hand of judges and Congress in tightening how surveillance authority is granted and policed.
Third-order effects
If courts keep invalidating programs after each violation, intelligence collection drifts structurally toward narrow, statute-grounded authority with heavier incident reporting — the direction the USA Freedom Act redesign already pointed.
The trend: Courts are steadily converting American surveillance from statutorily ambiguous bulk programs into narrowly authorized, closely audited collection.
BREAKING: A federal appeals court just ruled that the NSA's bulk collection of Americans' phone records was illegal. This ruling, which confirms what we have always known, is a victory for our privacy rights.
Looking closely at today's ruling, it seems that the correct number of US terrorism cases stopped by the Section 215 program is, in the view of the court, not one but zero. https://twitter.com/...
Seven years ago, as the news declared I was being charged as a criminal for speaking the truth, I never imagined that I would live to see our courts condemn the NSA's activities as unlawful and in the same ruling credit me for exposing them. And yet that day has arrived. https://…
This judge repeatedly cites the Snowden disclosures, showing once again the power of a whistleblower driven by conscience and a press dedicated to the truth. https://twitter.com/...
Would our S Court show similar defence of rights in India? We don't even know which gov agency is taking what data of ours for which purpose & then sharing with whom. https://twitter.com/...
Know what the courts didn't rule legal in any sense? Stealing defense information and conspiring with Russian intelligence. Those are still treasonous felonies. https://twitter.com/...
PDF of the full ruling is here ... note that NSA officials initially claimed that Section 215 surveillance stopped 13 terrorist plots in the United States. @SenatorLeahy drilled down and the number dropped to one case — Moalin... https://www.aclu.org/...
When asked if the NSA stands by its previous statements that its phone records collection program had thwarted terrorist attacks, a spokesperson declined to comment. https://twitter.com/...
Big day for the people who came out of the woodwork two weeks ago to whine that Snowden shouldn't be pardoned! *Another* appeals court cites him a half dozen times in ruling the program he revealed to be illegal and possibly unconstitutional https://www.yahoo.com/...
In 2013, my amendment to stop the NSA's unconstitutional metadata surveillance program was narrowly defeated. Multiple Congresses, Obama, and Trump renewed the program until it finally lapsed this year. Today, the 9th Circuit ruled the program illegal. https://www.politico.com/..…
Would you look at that... The NSA telephone metadata snooping program revealed by Snowden is illegal and possibly unconstitutional, says the 9th Circuit. And yet, the US govt's response to revealing that illegal program was forcing Snowden into exile. https://www.politico.com/...
The new 9th Circuit ruling also credits @Snowden for revealing the NSA metadata program. The role of the former contractor who's holed up in Russia is mentioned a half dozen times in today's decision https://www.politico.com/... https://twitter.com/...
NEW: A federal appeals court rules the controversial NSA phone-call- metadata program was illegal & maybe unconstitutional to boot. 9th Cir decision 7 long years in the making also suggests feds hyped program's involvement in a key terror $$$ prosecution https://www.politico.com/…