Congressman Jerrold Nadler (NY-10), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice, released the following statement:

“I applaud today’s ruling by Judge Richard Leon that the dragnet surveillance by the NSA of data from all phone calls in the U.S. likely violates the Fourth Amendment’s protection of privacy.

“I have long argued that the bulk collection program violates the Constitution.  Unfortunately, the government was able to hide behind a wall of secrecy to avoid scrutiny of its actions.  This decision shows the difference between a properly functioning federal court and the FISA court, which acts in secret and only hears the government’s side of the case. I look forward to a full airing of the important constitutional issues in this case.

“Calling the bulk collection of data ‘Orwellian,’ the court reiterated that ‘a warrantless search is generally unreasonable unless based on some quantum of individualized suspicion.’ As a result, Judge Leon found that ‘plaintiffs have a substantial likelihood of showing that their privacy interests outweigh the Government’s interest in collecting and analyzing bulk telephony metadata and therefore the NSA’s bulk collection program is indeed an unreasonable search under the Fourth Amendment.’ 

“The Administration should immediately reign in these unconstitutional surveillance programs.”

###