Summary: A lack of evidence to support the lawsuit leads an appeals court to turn the case against the NSA back to a lower court to deliberate over.
An activist’s lawsuit against the National Security Agency’s call records program has been rejected by an appeals court in the District of Columbia. The Freedom Watch, founded by public interest lawyer Larry Klayman was seeking to sue the NSA over the legality of their program but the three-judge panel ruled that the plaintiff had not made a case sufficient enough to prove there was any standing for the lawsuit.
Klayman tried to prove the NSA had collected his phone records but was unable to so there was no basic condition to bring the lawsuit. The appeals court sent the case back to the lower court to decide. The ruling does not address if the program is legal or constitutional, it only is saying the case needs more to move on.
The ruling did however reverse a ban on the NSA’s collection that had been in place since December 2013. Congress ended the program in June, barring them from collecting anymore phone and other records in bulk. However, the NSA is still doing this while they transition the program to the phone companies to take over in December.
U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon had originally ruled that Klayman “demonstrated a substantial likelihood of success” to prove his Fourth Amendment right to privacy was violated by the NSA program and the program would likely be found unconstitutional. His ruling is was sent the case to the appeals court.
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