ACLU Sues Obama Administration Over Domestic Phone Records Collection
The American Civil Liberties Union sued the Obama administration Tuesday charging that its collection of vast domestic phone records violates Americans' constitutional rights of free speech and privacy.
The lawsuit could set up an eventual Supreme Court test, The New York Times reports. The ACLU argues the Obama's administration's "dragnet" collection of domestic phone call logs is illegal and has asked a judge to stop the practice and order the records purged.
The lawsuit comes in the wake of revelations by The Guardian and The Washington Post that a secret court granted the Obama administration access to call logs for all Verizon calls made within the U.S. and between the U.S. and other countries for a three-month period.
The surveillance program is "akin to snatching every American's address book" and "gives 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 complaint says.