When Edward Snowden leaked details about the National Security Agency's Prism program and the surveillance program that demanded Verizon turn over details about millions of phone calls many American citizens were wondering if the agency's actions were legal. Members of Congress will attempt to answer that question over a series of briefings and hearings to be conducted this week, according to CBS News.
"I think it's a constitutional issue, without a doubt," Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., told CBS News. "I don't think the Constitution allows for broad sweeps of personal data of people who aren't even suspected of doing anything. As of this week, we now know that's occurring."
Massie said that he would be meeting with Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., in order to plan a potential lawsuit. Paul appeared on "Fox News Sunday" and discussed the possibility of a legal action against the NSA.
"I'm going to be seeing if I can challenge this at the Supreme Court level," Paul said. "I'm going to be asking all the internet providers and all of the phone companies: Ask your customers to join in a class action lawsuit. If we get 10 million Americans saying we don't want our phone records looked at, the maybe someone will wake up and something will change in Washington."
Some experts are saying that as unseemly as the NSA's surveillance may be that it is legal thanks to the Patriot Act and the 2008 FISA Amendments Act, according to CBS News.
A group of lawyers and journalists challenged the FISA Amendments Act in the Supreme Court last year claiming that they had been targeted by the U.S. government for communicating with foreign contacts. The Supreme Court ruled that the plaintiffs could not prove that they had been the targets of surveillance and threw the case out, according to CBS News.
Massie has stated that even if the NSA's actions are covered under the Patriot Act that they are not consistent with the reasons the Patriot Act was passed.
"Whether those laws authorize them or not, when those laws were passed, those of us complaining about them were assured, 'Oh, that's not what this is about,'" Massie said. "What we're finding out is it's about getting everybody's data."
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., believes that Director of National Intelligence James Clapper lied to him last March during a hearing on the NSA's surveillance policies, according to the Associated Press.
"Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?" Wyden asked at the hearing.
"No, sir. Not wittingly," Clapper said. "There are cases where they could, inadvertently perhaps, collect - but not wittingly."
The Senate Appropriations Committee will conduct the first hearing when NSA Director Keith Alexander testifies on Wednesday.
