The National Security Agency’s practice of collecting information about all telephone calls placed in, to and from the United States is lawful despite the potential civil liberties abuses inherent in such a “metadata” bank, a federal judge in Manhattan ruled Friday.
Southern District Judge William Pauley III (See Profile) concluded in American Civil Liberties Union v. Clapper, 13 Civ. 3994, that the NSA’s telephony metadata program is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment, given the “horrific” consequences of international terrorism as demonstrated on Sept. 11, 2001.
