Connare — Volume 63, Issue 2

Connare analyzes ACLU v. Clapper, a landmark case addressing Fourth Amendment protections in the digital age. Following Edward Snowden's 2013 revelations in The Guardian about NSA surveillance programs, the American Civil Liberties Union and state civil liberties organizations brought suit against government officials challenging the NSA's Bulk Telephony Metadata Collection Program. A FISC (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court) order compelled Verizon to produce all call detail records between the United States and abroad or wholly within the States. Plaintiffs argued the program exceeded authority granted by Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act and violated the First and Fourth Amendments. Judge William Pauley rejected plaintiffs' claims and granted the government's motion to dismiss. The Bulk Telephony Metadata Collection Program operated under FISA's "business records" provision, authorizing FBI to obtain telecommunications service provider records containing telephone numbers placing and receiving calls, session-identifying information, trunk identifiers, calling card numbers, and call date, time, and duration. The NSA stores metadata in a database and accesses it only through queries using designated officials' approval. Connare examines the legal framework, including how the FISC order operated and justified the government's collection activities, while analyzing the court's reasoning for rejecting constitutional challenges to dragnet surveillance.

Topics: Constitutional Law · First Amendment · Evidence & Procedure

Keywords: Fourth Amendment · NSA surveillance · ACLU v. Clapper · bulk metadata collection · Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court · Patriot Act Section 215 · PRISM · Snowden revelations