US appeals court: NSA phone record collection is illegal

NEW YORK (AP) — The unprecedented and unwarranted bulk collection of Americans' phone records by the government is illegal because it wasn't authorized by Congress, a federal appeals court said today as it asked legislators to decide how to balance national security and privacy interests.

A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan permitted the National Security Agency program to continue temporarily as it exists, but all but pleaded for Congress to better define where boundaries exist.

"In light of the asserted national security interests at stake, we deem it prudent to pause to allow an opportunity for debate in Congress that may [or may not] profoundly alter the legal landscape," said the opinion written by Circuit Judge Gerald Lynch.

"The statutes to which the government points have never been interpreted to authorize anything approaching the breadth of the sweeping surveillance at issue here," the court said. "The sheer volume of information sought is staggering."

A lower court judge in December tossed out an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit, saying the program was a necessary extension to security measures taken after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. The appeals court said the lower court had erred.

The NSA's collection and storage of U.S. landline calling records — times, dates and numbers but not content of the calls — was the most controversial program among many disclosed in 2013 by former NSA systems administrator Edward Snowden.