A United States Federal Judge ordered the National Security Agency to halt acquiring phone data records of a lawyer in California on Monday. The order is in line with the NSA's collecting of metadata, which began after the 9/11 tragedy.
U.S. Federal Judge Richard Leon ruled in favor of Larry Klayman for his client, lawyer J.J. Little, along with the rest of his firm.
"This court simply cannot, and will not, allow the government to trump the Constitution merely because it suits the exigencies of the moment,'' his ruling stated, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Leon mentioned that the case may be final evaluation over NSA's data collection methods in this case.
"It will not, however, be the last chapter in the ongoing struggle to balance privacy rights and national security interests under our Constitution in an age of evolving technological wizardry," Leon wrote, according to Reuters.
Leon weighed the constitutional issues of the case which led him to the decision.
"With the government's authority to operate the bulk telephony metadata program quickly coming to an end, this case is perhaps the last chapter in the judiciary's evaluation of this particular program's compatibility with the Constitution," he wrote, according to the New York Times. "Although this Court appreciates the zealousness with which the Government seeks to protect the citizens of our Nation, that same Government bears just as great a responsibility to protect the individual liberties of those very citizens."
The spying program perpetrated by the NSA was exposed to the public by Edward Snowden in 2013, according to the National Monitor. Snowden was tuned in while the decision was being made.
Court affirmed 4th Amendment protections against NSA's mass surveillance, defending "the right to be left alone." pic.twitter.com/JSgf3vpEYb
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) November 9, 2015
