Monday, December 16, 2013

Just Another Monday

Not much to report today, it was just another Monday at the schoolhouse.  While surfing around today I did notice that a federal judge whacked the NSA over their metadata mining program.  That's good news.
A federal judge ruled Monday that the National Security Agency's bulk collection of phone records likely violates the Constitution, in a major setback for the controversial spy agency. 
What this might mean in the long run is up for grabs, and whether a sitting district judge even had reason to look at the program is questionable, but I'm happy that the judge is on our side.  Evidently when he asked some direct questions from the NSA and they blew him off... well, it's never a good idea to blow off a judge.
But in his a 68-page, heavily footnoted opinion, Leon concluded that the government didn't cite a single instance in which the program "actually stopped an imminent terrorist attack."
"I have serious doubts about the efficacy of the metadata collection program as a means of conducting time-sensitive investigations in cases involving imminent threats of terrorism," he added. 
 When the judge asks you a direct question, and you don't provide evidence, don't look for your program to go well.

1 comment:

Old NFO said...

Bout damn time...