Federal judge rules NSA phone records collection programme legal

A federal judge yesterday ruled that a National Security Agency programme, under which humongous amounts of phone records of people were tracked by federal agencies was legal.

The ruling comes as the latest development in an extraordinary debate among courts and a presidential review group about the need to balance security and privacy in the era of big data.

According to commentators, in only 11 days, the two judges and the presidential panel had reached the opposite of consensus on every significant question before them, including the intelligence value of the programme, the privacy interests at stake and how the Constitution figured in the analysis.

The latest decision, from judge William H Pauley III in New York, could not have been more diametrically opposed to the one of 16 December, when judge Richard J Leon in Washington ruled that the programme was ''almost Orwellian'' and probably unconstitutional.

The New York Times, quoted Orin S Kerr, a law professor at George Washington University, as saying that the yesterday's decision was the exact opposite of judge Leon's in every way, substantively and rhetorically, adding, it was matter and antimatter.

In his 54-page judgment, Pauley referred to the NSA programme as a counter-punch to terrorism.

Throwing out a challenge from the ACLU, Pauley said the NSA's practice of collecting millions of Americans' phone records was constitutional, saying the programme ''…significantly increases the NSA's capability to detect the faintest patterns left behind by individuals affiliated with foreign  terrorist organisations.''

Meanwhile, Edward Snowden, the NSA contractor who leaked the details of the programme said in a Christimas address on British television, ''We have censors in our pockets that track us everywhere we go. Think about what this means for the privacy of the average person.''

Further, an advisory task force has called for making big changes at the NSA, including requiring court approval before accessing phone and internet data – a move critics opposed to the programme want to be introduced.

''NSA, you've gone too far. The bulk collection of Americans' data by the US government has to end,'' said senator Patrick Leahy (D) Vermont.

ACLU officials said they were extremely disappointed with yesterday's decision and planned to appeal.

The secret spying progamme is the target of at least three other lawsuits pending in other courts.