ACLU will appeal ruling that NSA bulk phone record collection is legal

• Appeal is against verdict by New York federal judge
• Federal appeals courts drawn into controversy

• Spencer Ackerman in Washington
• 
  
• theguardian.com, Thursday 2 January 2014 17.44 EST

The National Security Agency campus in Fort Meade, Maryland. Photograph: Patrick Semansky/AP

The American Civil Liberties Union gave notice on Thursday that it will continue its legal case challenging the constitutionality of the National Security Agency’s collection of all US phone records, drawing the federal appeals courts into a decision on the controversial surveillance.
A federal judge in New York, William Pauley, gave the NSA a critical courtroom victory last week when he found the ACLU “has no traction” in arguing that intercepting the records of every phone call made in the United States is a violation of the constitutional protection against unreasonable search and seizures.
As expected, on Thursday the ACLU filed notice that it will appeal Pauley’s decision before the second circuit court of appeals. The civil liberties group said in a statement that it anticipates making its case before the appellate court in the spring.
“The government has a legitimate interest in tracking the associations of suspected terrorists, but tracking those associations does not require the government to subject every citizen to permanent surveillance,” deputy ACLU legal director Jameel Jaffer said in the statement.

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