Editorial: The NSA’s Excesses
Congress has an opportunity to make changes to the law when it expires in June.
The information from your phone calls obtained and stored by the federal government stems from a wrongful interpretation of a law that seeks to fight terrorism. Congress has now the opportunity to correct the problem by eliminating a program of dubious constitutionality.
Yesterday’s decision of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals declares that the Patriot Act’s Section 215 does not authorize the National Security Agency (NSA) to gather and store metadata from millions of phone calls of U.S. citizens who are not suspect of any crime. The judges rejected the government’s argument that the law authorizes massive recollection of information in a dragnet manner seeking for suspects, and pointed that it only refers to specific investigations. The magistrates also rejected the argument that Congress’ intention was to prevent a “suspect under investigation” from appealing to the courts.
Phone data include, for example, the calls’ duration and the phone numbers involved, but not the content of the conversations. It does not look like much, but you can get information from the caller when you know where he calls, and that’s why millions of calls are collected. According to the judges, the law approved by Congress does not authorize this collection of information.
Congress has an opportunity to make changes to the law when it expires in June. Both legislative chambers have put forward bills confronting libertarians and progressives who favor eliminating Section 215 and any substitute, against those who believe it is a necessary tool to protect the country from terrorism. The recent incident in Texas regrettably reinforces the NSA position.
We believe the program, which was denounced by Edward Snowden, conflicts with the protections of the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment, which require “probable cause” before launching an investigation. The judges skillfully avoided the word constitutionality, but said the law does not authorize the government’s actions. It remains to be seen if at one point they will decide about the heart of the matter.
It’s not time to celebrate. Your calls and our calls will continue being monitored by the NSA because the judges did not order their suspension. Now we need to wait for Congress’ action.
