“The President should end mass surveillance immediately. If not, [US] Congress needs to finish the job and finally end this dragnet,” Wyden said.
A US federal appeals court ruled Thursday that the NSA mass phone surveillance program is illegal and exceeded the scope of what the US Congress had authorized under Section 215 of the Patriot Act.
Section 215 has been legally interpreted by the NSA and two presidential administrations to justify the mass surveillance program on US citizens.
“This is a huge step for individual Americans’ rights,” Wyden said, commenting on the ruling.
The NSA surveillance program violates the US law, and does not make the United States safer, the senator stressed.
The federal appeals court ruling came as a June 1, 2015, deadline approaches for the US Congress to renew or revise the Patriot Act, which strengthened security control after terrorist attack on September 11, 2001.
Two bills are being considered, one that would renew the Patriot Act and another, the USA Freedom Act, which would place limitations on Section 215 by allowing surveillance on specific targets – instead of bulk collection — after approval by an intelligence court.
