NSA surveillance lawful, judge rules
The surveillance programme was leaked by former National Security Agency contractor, Edward Snowden
A US federal judge has found that mass government surveillance of the phone network is legal, a week after another ruling said the opposite.
New York District Judge William Pauley said the snooping was a "counter-punch" against al-Qaeda.
He said the National Security Agency (NSA) programme might have prevented the 9/11 attacks.
Last week a federal judge in Washington DC said the surveillance was "likely unconstitutional" and "Orwellian".
But in Friday's decision, Judge Pauley, of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, said "the balance of equities and the public interest tilt firmly in favour of the Government's position".
He dismissed a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
In the conclusion to his 53-page ruling, he writes: "The right to be free from searches and seizures is fundamental, but not absolute."
He also notes: "Every day, people voluntarily surrender personal and seemingly-private information to trans-national corporations, which exploit that data for profit.
"Few think twice about it, even though it is far more intrusive than bulk telephony metadata collection.
"There is no evidence that the Government has used any of the bulk telephony metadata it collected for any purpose other than investigating and disrupting terrorist attacks."
No comments:
Post a Comment