The NSA's Mass-Surveillance Program Is About to Go on Trial

Author: 
Coverage Type: 

A federal Appeals Court will review the government's controversial domestic spying program that collects the phone records of virtually all Americans, a once-secret practice that was publicly exposed by Edward Snowden.

A three-judge panel of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments considering the constitutionality of the National Security Agency's bulk collection of phone "metadata" -- the numbers, dates, and duration of calls but not the actual content of conversations. The case is poised to have far-reaching implications for digital privacy and could appear before the Supreme Court as soon as next year. At issue is whether the government's gathering of American phone records is a violation of the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches. The government has said that the practice, authorized under Section 215 of the post-9/11 USA Patriot Act, does not amount to a legitimate invasion of privacy and is necessary to detect national-security threats -- although some intelligence officials have in recent months indicated that the program in its current form may be unnecessary.


The NSA's Mass-Surveillance Program Is About to Go on Trial