ACLU v. Clapper
21 Articles

Orin Kerr’s Unconvincing Defense of Yesterday’s Second Circuit (Non-)Ruling
Over at the Volokh Conspiracy, my friend Orin Kerr has a thoughtful post up about yesterday’s Second Circuit decision in ACLU v. Clapper, which refused to enjoin the…

Section 215 and “Fruitless” (?!?) Constitutional Adjudication
This morning, the Second Circuit issued a follow-on ruling to its May decision in ACLU v. Clapper (which had held that the NSA’s bulk telephone records program was unlawful…

ACLU v. Clapper Will End the Telephone Dragnet
Last week’s dramatic Second Circuit decision in ACLU v. Clapper, invalidated the alleged legal basis for the NSA domestic phone call dragnet, Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act,…

What ACLU v. Clapper Means
Many others have already weighed in about the significance of last week’s ruling in ACLU v. Clapper. Here are my own quick thoughts. As regular readers of this blog already know,…

How the Second Circuit’s Decision in Clapper Informs the Section 215 Discussion
This post is the latest installment of our “Monday Reflections” feature, in which a different Just Security editor examines the big stories from the previous week or looks…

The Substance of the Second Circuit on 215: Four Key Takeaways
[Cross-posted at ACSblog] Yesterday the Second Circuit declared the NSA’s bulk telephone metadata program unlawful. Specifically, it ruled that it was unauthorized by section…

[UPDATED with details and analysis] BREAKING: Second Circuit rules that Section 215 does not authorize telephony bulk collection program
[UPDATED] The opinion is here. Judge Sack’s concurring opinion is here. Because the court rules on statutory grounds, it does not reach the Fourth Amendment questions.…

ACLU Takes Phone-Records Challenge to Appeals Court
The ACLU has just filed its opening brief in the Second Circuit in its challenge to the NSA’s phone-records program. The brief—the first appellate brief to be filed in any…

Section 215 Telephone Metadata Collection: The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board Trashes Pretty Much Everyone
Wow. There’s really no other way to capture what the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board told the nation today in its 200+ page report on the NSA’s telephone metadata…

Privacy Board Debunks Purported Justification for NSA’s Phone-Records Dragnet
The just-released report of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board is rigorous and well-written, and it’s worth reading in its entirety. One section warranting particular…

Bulk Data Collection and the Mosaic Theory: A More Balanced Approach to Information
The pending challenges in ACLU v. Clapper and Klayman v. Obama (now on appeal before the Second Circuit and D.C. Circuit, respectively) raise the question of whether the mosaic…

Could the NSA’s Telephony Metadata Program Have Prevented 9/11? Judge William Pauley v. Lawrence Wright
In an earlier post, I proposed some analytic tools for evaluating the effectiveness of the NSA’s telephony metadata program – in light of recommendations by the President’s…