US rules its spying plan is illegal
 

A spying program that collects millions of Americans’ phone records is illegal, a federal appeals court ruled.

The Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said the Patriot Act did not authorise the National Security Agency to collect Americans’ calling records in bulk.

Circuit Judge Gerard Lynch wrote for a three-judge panel that Section 215, which addresses the FBI’s ability to gather business records, could not be interpreted to have permitted the NSA to collect a “staggering” amount of phone records, contrary to claims by the Bush and Obama administrations.

“Such expansive development of government repositories of formerly private records would be an unprecedented contraction of the privacy expectations of all Americans,” Lynch wrote in a 97-page decision. “We would expect such a momentous decision to be preceded by substantial debate, and expressed in unmistakable language. There is no evidence of such a debate.”

http://www.techeye.net/security/us-r...lan-is-illegal