



A federal appeals court has ruled that the National Security Agency's program of collecting billions of telephones records is not permitted by the Patriot Act.

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals, in ACLU vs. Clapper, said a lower court was wrong in ruling that the Patriot Act, as written, precluded a court from reviewing the NSA program.

"Because we find that the program exceeds the scope of what Congress has authorized, we vacate the decision below dismissing the complaint without reaching appellants'constitutional arguments," Judge Gerard Lynch wrote for the court.

The court did not address the question of whether the program violated peoples' rights ,because the issue was made moot by the finding the program was not allowed in the first place.

This story is developing. Please check back for further updates.