Supreme Court: NSA Surveillance Scandal Allowed, Case Rejected For No Reason

The Supreme Court’s NSA phone spying decision has come down with the case being rejected for no apparent reason, allowing the NSA scandal to continue unabated.

As previously reported by The Inquisitr, the Supreme Court had to decide if prayer should be allowed in government meetings. Some people might be surprised to find out that the original American state governments had official religions, but that didn’t stop a praying school bus driver from being fired.

Despite the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) petition for a review of the NSA’s phone record data collection, the Supreme Court has declined to hear the case. EPIC has requested the Supreme Court review the collected data to rule on the legality of it’s collection, and they say that the NSA has overstepped its boundaries. The Supreme Court did not give any reason why it was denying the request.

EPIC publically expressed it’s disappointment:

“There is simply no way to establish relevance for the collection of all telephone records on all U.S. telephone customers for an intelligence investigation. It is very hard to challenge these orders and it therefore urged the Supreme Court to reverse the decision.”

The Obama Administration even disputed EPIC’s right to challenge the NSA surveillance, saying the Patriot Act will only allow for challenges from companies who have received orders to hand over records. Since the order was issued to Verizon, they say EPIC has no standing in the case.

The NSA surveillance collection allegedly includes metadata from virtually every phone call made in America. With the information gathered, very personal details can be gleaned on any individual’s daily life. The EPIC request is one of many lawsuits currently pending in regards to the NSA surveillance scandal, and there are two bills pending in Congress on the same issue.

Most Americans had no idea exactly what was going on until Edward Snowden leaked government documents regarding the US’s surveillance activities. EPIC Executive Director Marc Rotenberg argued that the secret FISA court was wrong to endorse a permissive and expansive rendering of the law, and the legality of collection was questioned. Since FISA includes no protections or provisions of standing for ordinary Americans to bring to any court, EPIC was attempting to protect the privacy of every American, which is exactly the kind of case the Supreme Court handles.

In his brief, Rotenberg wrote:

“The ongoing collection of the domestic telephone records of millions of Americans by the NSA, untethered to any particular investigation, is beyond the authority granted by Congress to the [secret intelligence court] under the [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act].”

Among many other issues most American’s have with the NSA surveillance scandal is the fact that a secret court is issuing orders (34 times) that now apparently no other court has any power (or can be bothered) to address.

So what do you think? Should the Supreme Court NSA surveillance scandal be allowed in return for our “security” as a nation?