Snowden lawyer: Supreme Court must weigh in on NSA

The slew of possible privacy rights violations posed by the National Security Agency’s bulk intelligence collection programs all but demand the nation’s highest court weigh in on those issues, Edward Snowden’s legal adviser said on Sunday. 

“It is time for the Supreme Court to weigh in” on constitutionality of NSA bulk intelligence collection,  Ben Wizner, head of the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”  

{mosads}NSA programs disclosed by Snowden are akin to a “bulk warrant” that clearly violate constitutional tenets regarding privacy, Wizner said.  

Recent federal court rulings clearly show “there is an [ongoing] dispute on whether this is effective or legal,” he added. 

Earlier this month, U.S. District Court judge Richard Leon granted a request for an injunction that would halt NSA collection of phone metadata on two individuals. 

However, due to national security concerns, Leon stayed the ruling in order to give the government time to appeal.  

The agency’s collection of phone metadata, which includes phone numbers, call times and call durations, is one of several NSA programs Snowden illegally leaked details on to the Guardian, New York Times and Washington Post. 

The disclosures set off a flurry of congressional hearings, aimed at reining in the agency’s operations.  

At the time, Snowden predicted Leon’s ruling would be “the first of many” targeting the agency’s bulk intelligence operations. 

On Sunday Wizner said Snowden “did his part” to bring the NSA’s bulk surveillance operations into the light. It is now up to the Supreme Court to address the possible constitutional violations from those programs, he added.