ACLU Files Lawsuit Against White House Challenging Constitutionality Of NSA Spying Program

The ACLU filed a lawsuit today against the Obama administration to challenge the constitutionality of the NSA surveillance program.

The American Civil Liberties Union argues that the the National Security Agency is violating the first amendment by spying on phone calls placed by American citizens. The lawsuit also says that the dragnet program exceeds the powers granted by the Patriot Act.

Jameel Jaffer, ACLU deputy legal director, said: “This dragnet program is surely one of the largest surveillance efforts ever launched by a democratic government against its own citizens. It is the equivalent of requiring every American to file a daily report with the government of every location they visited, every person they talked to on the phone, the time of each call, and the length of every conversation. The program goes far beyond even the permissive limits set by the Patriot Act and represents a gross infringement of the freedom of association and the right to privacy.”

The NY Times notes that the government has persuaded the Supreme Court to dismiss similar cases in the past because litigation on a classified program could reveal state secrets. This could be different, however, as the government has already declassified the existance of the program.

The ACLU is also hopeful to get a ruling on the case since the ACLU is a customer of Verizon Business Network Services. The group said in a press release that a lawsuit that challenged the constitutionality of the FISA Amendments ACT was recently dismissed by the Supreme Court on grounds that the ACLU could not provide proof that it was being monitored. That shouldn’t be a problem this time around.

Alex Abdo, a staff attorney for the ACLU’s National Security Project, said: “The crux of the government’s justification for the program is the chilling logic that it can collect everyone’s data now and ask questions later. The Constitution does not permit the suspicionless surveillance of every person in the country.”