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Supreme Court Refuses To Hear EPIC Challenge To NSA Surveillance

Posted by samzenpus on from the we're-not-listening-to-you dept.

Trailrunner7 writes "The challenge to the NSA's domestic surveillance program filed with the Supreme Court by the Electronic Privacy Information Center ended Monday, with the court refusing to consider the challenge at all. EPIC had filed the challenge directly with the Supreme Court rather than going through the lower courts. EPIC, a non-profit organization involved in privacy policy matters, had asked the court to vacate an order from a judge in the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Court that had enabled the NSA's collection of hundreds of millions of Verizon call records under the so-called metadata collection program. The challenge hinged on the idea that the FISC had gone outside of its authority in granting the order."

3 of 227 comments (clear)

  1. No surprise by cold+fjord · · Score: 5, Insightful

    EPIC tried to jump the line - they didn't follow the proper appeals process. That is highly frowned upon by the legal system and rarely succeeds. No surprise in this outcome. And nobody should read anything into it either way. One of the existing or future challenges may succeed as it works its way through the court system.

    --
    much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
    1. Re:No surprise by TubeSteak · · Score: 5, Insightful

      From their petition:

      15
      The FISC and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review ("Court of Review") only
      have jurisdiction to hear petitions by the Government
      or recipient of the FISC Order, and neither party to
      the order represents EPIC's interests. Other federal
      courts have no jurisdiction over the FISC, and thus
      cannot grant the relief that EPIC seeks.

      The only people that can appeal the order are the Feds and the people that the feds are ordering around.
      EPIC, despite having their metadata vacuumed up, have no standing under the law to appeal to the FISA court.

      It's easy for you and others to say "[Epic] didn't follow the proper appeals process"
      but AFAIK none of you have actually elucidated what the proper appeals process is under the law.

      EPIC has, with citations, laid out their case, starting on Page 14 (PDF)
      "Nuh uh" isn't an insightful or interesting rebuttal.

      --
      [Fuck Beta]
      o0t!
  2. Re:Calling China right now by cold+fjord · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No, what's needed is a source of sound legal advice and strategy. EPIC's strategy was fatally flawed from the beginning. Their failure should have been easily foreseen by just about anyone with a more than passing familiarity with the US legal system. It was a self-frag.

    --
    much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell