Washington: The Obama administration has called on the US Congress to pass a bipartisan law reforming the NSA's spying practises after a court ruled as "illegal" the secretive telephone and Internet surveillance being carried out by the agency.
The Second Circuit Court of Appeal in New York yesterday ruled as illegal the telephone and Internet surveillance being done by the National Security Agency (NSA) with Judge Gerard Lynch, on behalf of the three-judge panel, saying the programme "exceeds the scope of what Congress has authorised."
"We are in the process of evaluating the decision handed down earlier today by the courts," White House Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz said.
"Without commenting specifically on that ruling today, I will say the President has been clear that he believes we should end the 215 bulk telephony metadata programme as it currently exists by creating an alternative mechanism to preserve the programme's essential capabilities without the government holding the bulk data," he said.
"We continue to work closely with members of Congress from both parties to do just that. And we've been encouraged by the good progress on the bipartisan, bicameral legislation that would implement these important reforms known as the USA Freedom Act," Schultz said.
Following the court ruling, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid called on the Congress to pass the bipartisan USA Freedom Act reforming the NSA's spying practices before the act authorising them expires on June 1.
"Bipartisan reform of the NSA's bulk data collection practises is on the table. It would be the height of irresponsibility to extend these illegal spying powers when we could pass bipartisan reform into law instead," Reid said.
Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Senator Patrick Leahy and Senator Mike Lee, in a joint statement, said, "The dragnet collection of Americans' phone records is unnecessary and ineffective, and now a federal appellate court has found that the programme is illegal. Congress should not reauthorise a bulk collection programme that the court has found to violate the law. We will not consent to any extension of this programme."
Electronic Frontier Foundation welcomed the decision by the New York court.
"The 2nd Circuit rejected on multiple grounds the government's radical reinterpretation of Section 215 that underpinned its secret shift to mass seizure and search of Americans' telephone records," said Cindy Cohn, executive director of Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) also welcomed the ruling by the federal appeals court that the NSA's 'dragnet' collection of Americans' phone records is illegal under the USA Patriot Act's amendment of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
