US court dismisses years-long NSA lawsuit, citing ‘state secrets’
Al Jazeera
The lawsuit says the practice of mass interception, searching of citizens’ international communications are unconstitutional.
A US federal appeals court has upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit that challenged the National Security Agency’s (NSA) practice of mass interception and searching of US citizens’ international internet communications.
The Wikimedia Foundation, which runs Wikipedia, said in its lawsuit that the NSA’s so-called “Upstream” surveillance programme captures some of its international communications and is a violation of the US Constitution’s First Amendment free-speech rights and its Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure.
In a divided ruling on Wednesday, the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals said the lawsuit must be dismissed after the government invoked the “state secrets privilege”, which meant that a full exploration of the issue in a court would damage national security.
