A US judge on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Friday called on the Obama administration to consider disclosing to the public the court™s classified opinions on the constitutionality of Americans™ phone records collection by the National Security Agency.
At the request of the American Civil Liberties Union and Yale Law School™s Media Freedom and Access Information Clinic, Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV ordered the US government to review the court™s opinions concerning Section 215 of the Patriot Act, the statute invoked by the NSA in order to collect Americans™ telephone records.
“The ACLU’s active participation in the legislative and public debates about the proper scope of Section 215 and the advisability of amending that provision is obvious from the public record and not reasonably in dispute,” Saylor wrote. “Nor is it disputed that access to the Section 215 Opinions would assist the ACLU in that debate.”
He also noted that the June publication of a court order by whistleblower Edward Snowden in regard to the collection of Americans™ phone logs caused the government to release some documents, among which there were two FISA court rulings from 2009 and 2011 that were highly critical of the NSA.
Praising the court™s decision, Alex Abdo, a staff attorney with the ACLU National Security Project, said in a statement, “We are pleased that the surveillance court has recognized the importance of transparency to the ongoing public debate about the NSA’s spying.”
“For too long, the NSA’s sweeping surveillance of Americans has been shrouded in unjustified secrecy. Today’s ruling is an overdue rebuke of that practice. Secret law has no place in our democracy,” Abdo added.
The NSA came under harsh criticism when Snowden revealed documents showing the super spy agency collects the phone records and email information of both US citizens and foreign nationals.
AT/ISH
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