The National Security Agency’s controversial record of phone collection underwent a grilling in a New York appeals court. The assistant attorney general faced tough questions from judges questioning the legality of the NSA’s phone surveillance program.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York is hearing arguments about the legality of the NSA’s surveillance of Americans’s phone records. The arguments are part of a lawsuit the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is bringing against to the court challenging the NSA’s program.
The NSA’s phone surveillance came to light when former employee Edward Snowden revealed that the government was conducting wide collection of Americans’ phone records.
Judge Gerard Lynch asked Assistant Attorney General Stuart Delery why the surveillance program won’t be expanded further to Americans’ credit card information.
“What’s so special about telephone records that makes them so valuable, so uniquely interactive or whatever, that the same arguments you’re making don’t apply to every record in the hands of a third party business entity of every American’s everything?” asked Lynch.
“C’mon,” he added, “isn’t it at least as relevant to you whether somebody that you had some reasonable suspicion is engaged in terrorist connections used his credit card last week to buy a ton of fertilizer as it is to find out whether he called his gym using his Verizon cellphone or even to find out who his other colleagues are?”
Delery countered that the collection of the phone records of Americans is a national security issue.
“The purpose of the bulk collection is to allow for the use of analytic tools in counterterrorism investigations,” said Delery.
“The purpose of the work is to detect and disrupt future plots before an attack can be made,” he added.
The two other judges on the panel, Robert Sack and Vernon Broderick, also expressed skepticism about the NSA phone surveillance program’s legality. The panel could reach a decision on the lawsuit in a few months.
