Appeals court overturns judge who would have stopped NSA data collection

The first major judicial ruling slamming the NSA's bulk collection of phone records has been overturned. In 2013, US District Judge Richard Leon ruled the program was likely unconstitutional, but held off on shutting it down until an appeals court could weigh in.

That's finally happened, and <a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2301500/klayman-opinion.pdf">the appeals ruling (PDF)</a> shows the three-judge panel didn't see things the same way as Leon.

The case is still relevant despite the fact that the new USA Freedom Act <a href="http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/06/let-the-snooping-resume-senat... in June</a>. The law prevents the NSA from running its own database, instead forcing the agency to get phone records from the telcos. But because the government's database was allowed a 180 day period for an "orderly transition," telephone records are still being collected, for now.

More importantly, today's ruling in Klayman v. Obama will set a guidepost for future policy around surveillance. The three judges go to varying lengths to dismantle the plaintiffs' claims, defend government secrecy, and support the spying program. They express skepticism that the activists even have standing, since they're subscribers of Verizon Wireless, not of Verizon Business Network Services, the business entity that's referred to in the document Snowden leaked.

Read more at http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/08/appeals-court-overturns-judge...