Politics
Obama mulls over limiting NSA’s power to store phone records
“There are ways we can do it, potentially, that gives people greater assurance that there are checks and balances — that there’s sufficient oversight and sufficient transparency,” Obama said at a December 20 news conference. He added that programs like the bulk collection “could be redesigned in ways that give you the same information when you need it without creating these potentials for abuse.”
Obama has also backed the idea of adding a public advocate position to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which rules on many of the domestic surveillance decisions. The court typically hears only from the government as it decides cases, and the advocate would represent privacy and civil liberties concerns.
That review followed disclosures from Snowden, who leaked details of several secret government programs. He faces espionage charges in the U.S., but has been granted temporary asylum in Russia.
Last month, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled that the NSA’s bulk collection program appeared to violate Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches, but he didn’t issue a preliminary injunction against unreasonable searches because of expected appeals. Late Wednesday, Justice Department lawyers asked Leon to halt further proceedings in his court on the NSA case and a second NSA-related lawsuit until the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit hears the government’s appeal of his December ruling.
Government lawyers said they were asking for the judicial stay from Leon because they were concerned that further court proceedings could jeopardize classified information about the surveillance program.
Larry Klayman, the conservative lawyer who filed the suit, has said he plans to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press
