A federal judge has ordered the NSA to cease collecting phone records on the plaintiffs of an anti-surveillance suit, reaffirming an earlier ruling. Judge Richard Leon found that so-called bulk collection likely violates the Fourth Amendment, calling it "a sweeping and truly astounding program that targets millions of Americans arbitrarily and indiscriminately." It's a definitive legal victory for privacy advocates, albeit one that won't have much direct effect on the program.

Leon's order revisited Klayman v. Obama, a civil liberties case filed after Edward Snowden released evidence of mass phone surveillance. Leon ruled on the case in lat …

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The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has overturned an injunction against the US government's phone surveillance program. Today, the court handed down a decision in Klayman v. Obama, a lawsuit arguing that the NSA's mass collection of phone records is unconstitutional. It found that there was not enough evidence that the lawsuit's subjects were actually under surveillance, reversing a decision made in late 2013.

The court didn't address whether the surveillance program was legal or constitutional. Instead, it concluded that the case's subjects lacked standing to bring a complaint at all, because they were unable to demonstrate …

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The Senate has passed the USA Freedom Act, which would resurrect a more restrained version of government surveillance powers. The USA Freedom Act was created to rein in Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which had allowed the government to (among other things) collect huge swathes of phone records from companies like Verizon. A version of the USA Freedom Act was passed by the House of Representatives in May, but the Senate has been unable to pass it until now, one day after Section 215 expired. This time, the bill passed with a vote of 67 for to 32 against.

The USA Freedom Act, proposed after Edward Snowden revealed the phone records program i …

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After a late Senate vote after midnight on Friday, the NSA is starting to take moves to shut down its bulk surveillance programs. With the legal foundation of those programs, the Patriot Act, set to expire at the end of the month, lawmakers have been working to agree on which parts of the mass surveillance systems should stay and which should go. The Senate failed to pass a replacement bill, the USA Freedom Act, and another measure proposed by Senate Majority Leader McConnell (R-KY) to extend the program as-is also did not pass.

"That process has begun."

In response to the news, officials said that the NSA would have to start taking action t …

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In a midnight session, the Senate has voted down the USA Freedom Act, putting one of the legal bedrocks of the NSA's bulk surveillance programs into jeopardy. The Patriot Act is set to expire at the end of the month, and the USA Freedom Act would have extended large portions of the act in modified form. Tonight's failure to arrive at a vote makes it likely that many of those powers will automatically expire, although Senate Majority Leader McConnell (R-KY) scheduled a last-minute session on May 31st for one last shot at passing the bill.

In particular, the USA Freedom Act would have modified the Section 215 of the Patriot Act, a clause that …

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A federal court has made a limited ruling against the NSA's mass collection of phone records. In a filing posted today, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals writes that the phone records program "exceeds the scope of what Congress has authorized," overturning a decision from 2013.

The American Civil Liberties Union brought its case against Director of National Intelligence James Clapper after Edward Snowden revealed that a government surveillance program was collecting metadata - including time stamps, phone numbers, and durations of calls - for millions of phone numbers. The NSA justified the program under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, whi …

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Three activist groups opposed to the NSA's mass surveillance programs flew a brightly colored airship over the agency's Utah data center today, displaying the message "NSA illegal spying below" for all to see. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, Greenpeace, and and the Tenth Amendment Center orchestrated the demonstration, using a 135-foot-long airship owned by Greenpeace. The airship also promoted the website Stand Against Spying - a collaborative effort between the three groups that allows visitors to look up whether or not their congressional representatives have opposed the recently unveiled government surveillance efforts.

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The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has been campaigning for years to get the US government to disclose vague, secretive details of how it's using the controversial USA PATRIOT Act, a sweeping package of surveillance laws first passed in 2001. Last year's waterfall of leaks brought to light many of those details against the government's will, but many specifics remain tightly under wraps - despite the public outcry that has swelled in the months since and concerted efforts from public interest groups, backed by FOIA requests.

There's still a long fight ahead

A new development in the EFF's lawsuit against the Department of Justice gives …

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Reform Government Surveillance, a coalition of major tech companies that has pushed for greater transparency and stronger limits on the intelligence community, is frustrated with the House of Representatives' recently passed surveillance compromise bill. In an open letter on the anniversary of the first Edward Snowden leak, the CEOs of Apple, Google, Yahoo, Twitter, Microsoft, Facebook, Dropbox, AOL, and LinkedIn have urged the Senate to pass a stronger version of the USA Freedom Act, restoring provisions that were removed under pressure from the White House and intelligence community.

In the next few weeks, the Senate has the opportunity t …

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