Obama Administration “Drowning” In NSA Surveillance Lawsuits
Ryan Martin / 11 years ago
RT reports that the Obama administration is now being flooded with federal lawsuits against the recently revealed NSA PRISM program. The most high profile of those is the lawsuit filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation who are suing the Obama administration and the U.S government for dragnet surveillance programs they authorised being run by the NSA. Lawsuits are being filed at a high rate of regularity and every day more and more people and organisations are coming forward to charge the Obama administration with constitutional violations and demand a stop to the surveillance programs.
The big case this week came from a whole host of organisations clubbing together accusing the NSA’s PRISM of being “an illegal and unconstitutional program of dragnet electronic surveillance, specifically the bulk acquisition, collection, storage, retention and searching of telephone communications information”. Involved in the case are the following organisations: First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles; Bill of Rights Defense Committee; Calguns Foundation; California Association of Federal Firearms Licensees; Council on Islamic Relations; Franklin Armory; Free Press; Free Software Foundation; Greenpeace; Human Rights Watch; Media Alliance; National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws; Open Technology Institute; People for the American Way, Public Knowledge; Students for Sensible Drug Policy; TechFreedom; and Unitarian Universalist Service Committee.
Recently an American court in North California found that the government can no longer use the “state secrets privilege” to prevent legal lawsuits and actions against it over issues of surveillance. This has opened a legal pathway to take the government to court over a variety of surveillance issues. With a floodgate opening on the U.S government administration it is only a matter of time before legal action forces a change in policy.
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