ACLU asks court to end NSA surveillance program that collects phone call data
Source: Washington Post
NEW YORK — Civil liberties advocates on Friday asked a federal court here to end the National Security Agency counterterrorism program that collects data on billions of phone calls by Americans, arguing that it violates the Constitution and was not authorized by Congress.
The case was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union after the publication in June of a court order to Verizon Business Network Services that showed the phone company was required to turn over to the NSA all call detail records of its customers, including the length and time of calls but not the content. The sweeping nature of that collection, which was placed under court supervision in secret in May 2006, set off a furious public discussion over whether the agency’s efforts to thwart terrorist attacks have overstepped the legal and common-sense boundaries of privacy.
The ACLU, which is a Verizon Business customer, said the NSA program violates the Constitution’s guarantees of privacy and of freedom of association. In the most significant legal challenge to the NSA’s collection, the ACLU also said that the program, which covers all major phone companies, exceeds the scope of its authorizing legislation. That statute, Section 215 of the Patriot Act, was passed in the weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
“This vast dragnet is said to be authorized by Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act, but nothing in the text or legislative history of that provision remotely suggests that Congress intended to empower the government to collect information on a daily basis, indefinitely, about every American’s phone calls,” said Jameel Jaffer, one of two ACLU attorneys arguing the case before U.S. District Judge William H. Pauley III in lower Manhattan...
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/aclu-asks-court-to-end-nsa-surveillance-program-that-collects-phone-call-data/2013/11/22/deb972b4-53b7-11e3-9e2c-e1d01116fd98_story.html
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horrible freedom-killing "Patriot" Act? Is it even possible to right the wrongs that have been done to this country in the last 50 years? 
I guess there is hope, especially with Elizabeth Warren in the Senate who will keep after Wall Street and place her body on top of any legislation that tries to axe any part of Social Security. There's hope, since there is a way for those 40-50 million people who are partially or totally uninsured to get health insurance. There's hope, since the Senate (i.e. Feinstein and Boxer, et al) decided to give Harry the vote to axe part of the filibuster rule so PO can fill the empty seats in his administration and the courts. And there will be even more hope if in 2014 we can wrestle down more seats than the wingers in the House and the Senate. 2014! 
