The ACLU yesterday filed suit against the Obama administration, demanding an end to the collection of phone records by the NSA.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in New York by the American Civil Liberties Union, along with the New York Civil Liberties Union. “The practice is akin to snatching every American’s address book — with annotations detailing whom we spoke to, when we talked, for how long, and from where,” the lawsuit says. “It gives the government a comprehensive record of our associations and public movements, revealing a wealth of detail about our familial, political, professional, religious, and intimate associations.” The lawsuit — which names as defendants the heads of national intelligence as well as the agencies they lead, including the National Security Agency, the FBI, the Department of Defense and the Department of Justice — also asks the court to purge phone records collected under the program, claiming the government action violates the First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitution.
The ACLU’s lawsuit claims standing on the grounds that as a former customer of Verizon, the federal government now likely has much of their phone data on file.