Collection of Foreigners’ Data Began Before Congress Backed It, Papers Show

A federal judge ruled in 2007 that the USA Patriot Act empowered the National Security Agency to collect foreigners’ e-mails and phone calls from domestic networks without prior judicial approval, newly declassified documents show.

The documents -- two rulings of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court -- fill in a chapter in the history of the NSA’s warrantless surveillance program. They show the agency’s secret moves in the months before Congress authorized the spying by enacting the Protect America Act in August 2007. The disclosure also brought into public view a previously unknown example of how the surveillance court, which hears arguments only from the government before issuing secret rulings, sometimes accepts novel interpretations of the law to bless government requests for spying powers.