FISA Court Again Signs Off on NSA Phone Metadata Collection

No Details Provided on Latest Ruling

According to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), US FISA courts have once again renewed the NSA’s authority to collect “telephony metadata,” essentially all phone records of all Americans, for an additional three months.

The press release provided no real details about the secret ruling by the secret court, but insisted that it covers “all companies” that have ever been authorized in the past, which likely means all companies in general.

The DNI statement bragged about a recent decision by Federal Judge William Pauley endorsing NSA surveillance on the grounds of 9/11.

Interestingly, it also made indirect mention of the contrary ruling by Judge Richard Leon, who said the surveillance was almost certainly unconstitution, simply saying there was a “single” court decision against the surveillance that the DNI is appealing against.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.