Federal Judge Rules That National Security Agency's Warrantless Surveillance Program Was Illegal

Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation v. Obama (MEMORANDUM OF DECISION AND ORDER)

I applaud this decision. I am quite sure that the government will appeal to the Supreme Court this decision in the Northern District of California in federal court where the judge ruled that the National Security Agency’s program of warrant-less surveillance was illegal. To date, President Obama has tried to block efforts to expose this throwback program to the George W. Bush era.

In a 45-page opinion, Judge Vaughn R. Walker ruled that the government had violated a 1978 federal statute requiring court approval for domestic surveillance when it intercepted phone calls of Al Haramain, a now-defunct Islamic charity in Oregon, and of two lawyers representing it in 2004. Declaring that the plaintiffs had been “subjected to unlawful surveillance,” the judge said the government was liable to pay them damages.

Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation ; New York Times