Court Sides With Edward Snowden, Rules Mass Surveillance Of Americans Is Illegal

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled Wednesday that the mass surveillance of Americans that former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden exposed seven years ago was unlawful and perhaps unconstitutional.

The ruling determined that the warrantless telephone tapping secretly collecting data from millions of Americans’ telephone records violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and exceeded the scope of Congress’ power.

“We conclude that the government may have violated the Fourth Amendment and did violate the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act when it collected the telephony metadata of millions of Americans,” the ruling reads in part.

Snowden is currently wanted on espionage charges and fled to Russia after disclosing to the public in 2013 that the United States government was conducting mass surveillance on Americans, according to Reuters.