Federal Court rules NSA's bulk data collection illegal

[thormx538]

http://www.wired.com/2015/05/breaking-news-federal-court-rules-nsa-bulk-data-collection-illegal/

THE UNITED STATES Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled on Thursday that the bulk collection of phone metadata by the NSA was illegal under federal law.

Rather than address the constitutionality of the program, the court took a much simpler tack. The decision concludes that the practice is beyond the scope of what the US Congress had in mind when it passed section 215 of the Patriot Act after September 11, 2001.

NSA's response?

 

[xtry51]

As if they'll actually stop.

 

[GM-GUY]

Good - but it won't stop them, they will get a a wink and smile from 0bama while they file legislation that gives them the go ahead - and most will sign off on it. Rand Paul is a NO I bet, and probably Cruz, but the rest will go along.

Of course the NSA is a 'black' agency, they could say that they are stopping it - and just will continue right along, come up with a new code-word extension on the classification to keep it out of the politicians hands and only with the actual analysts. Yes, it happens. I got to meet Senator Al Cranston over one of these deals - and lied my ass off as I was ordered to and he wasn't cleared for the intel.


It's all theater anyway, I think significant parts of the population were getting onto the illegal spying/data collection - this makes the sheep and low info types think it's over - and it's not.

 

[Dadstoys]

We'll stop

 

[rep308]

A blind pig finds an occasional acorn. Right decision we will see if they stop and still no one cares.

Insert " if you have nothing to hide crowd" comments after this post.

 

[Dadstoys]

In a few years we'll have another Snowden come out and spill the beans that after they wiped away the tears of laughter ,they never missed a beat

 

[Bonesinium]

Like half of the circuit courts have ruled the same way. They don't care and have and will continue to ignore the rulings.

 

[jkelly1229]

I mean really think about it how many people can really tell what the nsa are doing. Not too many and then it's fragmented info because if they work there and leak it it's a small sector and if they access it from the outside via hacking well they end up working there in a month and if they have time to read all the bs info dumps they can't put it online because they are retired and too old to know how to use a computer. The nsa is a scary breed of necessity. Yes we need a way to hold them accountable but how can anyone do that if very few people are technical enough to understand how they obtain most data. Also total aside kinda sad these idiots can get duped by smoke signals and carrier pigeons

 

[Rob Boudrie]

The only thing that will stop this is allowing "illegality of the activity" to be an absolute defense against a charge of disclosure of classified data.

 

[Dadstoys]

I might be tin foiling, but I suspect most of the data collected would never be used for criminal prosecution.
But leverage is nice to have.
J. Edgar Hoover knew the value of information.
"Wow your honor, you seem to spend a lot of time browsing beastiality websites." Your wife and kids know about this?"
"Gee Senator, That's a lot of phone calls to the man to man hotline." "Your up for re-election next year aren't you?"

 

[deerdad]

I would almost bet Snowden releases something huge just before elections.

Greg

 

[cekim]

The only thing that will stop this is allowing "illegality of the activity" to be an absolute defense against a charge of disclosure of classified data.

and personal accountability for those performing these illegal actions. Clearly oath and citizenship isn't sufficient incentive to protect the Constitution and your fellow citizens in that position, so we must add the specter of prison time to the mix to steer this boat.

The trouble now is there is no legal accountability at any level even with known and non-classified information. Clapper flat-out lied under oath and still runs the agency.

Of course it is deeper than all of that - the general public needs to figure out that ISIS and Al-this-or-that are not a realistic threat to us as a nation - our own government off the rails is and always will be in the best of times.

It wasn't "terrorists" that killed millions of people in Germany.
It wasn't "zealots" that killed 10's of millions of people in China
It wasn't "tea-partiers" that killed 10's of millions of people in Russia.

It was their own government off the rails doing what bureaucrats do when you don't force them to color inside the lines.

p.s. Yes, I am quite sure that lunatics will lunatic just as criminals will criminal. I am not suggesting there is no threat, but it is a threat that can be managed without trampling our rights.

 

[Horrible]

A good step but long way to go. I have no confidence in SCOTUS after the Oblahblahcare vote.

The major provisions of the Patriot Act come up for renewal in June.
Will be interesting to see how Congress votes. Repubs will likely support renewal.