Court hears first arguments in case challenging bulk data collection by NSA

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Court hears first arguments in case challenging bulk data collection by NSA

Plaintiffs claim ‘upstream’ program, partially revealed in documents leaked by
Edward Snowden, is illegally surveilling communications of all internet users

Nicky Woolf in Alexandria, Virginia
Friday 25 September 2015 20.36 BST

A federal court in Virginia on Friday heard the first oral arguments in a case challenging the “upstream” bulk collection of data by the National Security Agency (NSA).

The plaintiffs claim that the NSA’s “upstream” program, which was partially revealed in the documents leaked by Edward Snowden in June 2013, is illegally surveilling the communications of all internet users.

The case was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of the Wikimedia foundation – which owns and operates Wikipedia – as well as Human Rights Watch, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and several other plaintiffs including the Nation magazine.

Attorneys representing the NSA filed a motion to dismiss the case, claiming the plaintiffs’ case was “speculative” and had no standing.

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/sep/25/first-arguments-case-challenging-bulk-data-collection-nsa

[HassleCat]

1. Interesting probable cause quetion

Do they have probable cause to conduct surveillance on everybody in the whole world? Do they need probable cause? Since this sort of thing was not possible in the past, there may be no precedent on which to base a decision.

[libodem]

2. Wish I had 25 recs to give

Love to see this on the front page.