DC Circuit stays judge's decision blocking NSA collection of law firm's phone records
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A federal appeals court has temporarily stayed a federal judge’s order barring the National Security Agency from collecting phone data related to a California lawyer and his law firm.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit acted on Tuesday after government lawyers asserted it would take weeks to make the technical changes to block collection of phone metadata from California lawyer J.J. Little and his law firm. To avoid delays and comply with the lower court ruling, the entire program would have to be shut down, creating a “gap in intelligence collection,” the government said in an emergency motion. Politico, the Washington Post and the Volokh Conspiracy covered the appeals court’s stay.
As a result of new legislation, the metadata collection program is scheduled to end in less than three weeks when the government transitions to a new intelligence collection program based on targeted rather than bulk collection of metadata, the government motion says.
The D.C. Circuit issued its stay one day after U.S. District Judge Richard Leon of Washington, D.C., granted the injunction and blocked the agency from collecting metadata from Little and his firm, who were customers of Verizon Business Services, a company mentioned in a leaked Snowden document.
The appeals court ordered briefing on whether to grant a full stay pending appeal. The case is Klayman v. Obama.
Hat tip to How Appealing.
