As we reported back in July 2013, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and its allies filed a new federal lawsuit challenging government spying in the wake of the Snowden leaks.

This case, First Unitarian Church v. NSA, challenges the government's collection of telephone call information, saying the practice violates the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments of the United States Constitution. The complaint states that Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint all participate in the government's collection of data, including originating and terminating phone numbers, trunk identifiers, calling card numbers, and time and duration of calls.

Now, the First Unitarian Church and its fellow plaintiffs have new allies in three United States senators who have been at the forefront of surveillance policy reform. In a new amicus brief filed on Tuesday , Senators Mark Udall (D-CO), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Martin Heinrich (D-NM) say that they “have seen no evidence that the bulk collection of Americans’ phone records has provided any intelligence of value that could not have been gathered through less intrusive means.”

In this case, the plaintiffs argue that the National Security Agency's collection of phone data is unconstitutional, not just because it affects their rights to be free of illegal searches but because it affects their free speech rights as well. The lawsuit alleges that the government is impinging on First Amendment rights of activist groups to communicate anonymously, as well as "the right to associate privately and the right to engage in political advocacy free from government interference."

The new brief critiques several prominent cases that government officials have used to justify their spying program, including the Najibullah Zazi case and the Basaaly Moalin case. Zazi pleaded guilty in 2010 to an attempted bombing of the New York City subway system and is scheduled for sentencing in February 2014. Moalin’s attorneys continue to challenge the government’s case. The government has also argued that Khalid al-Mihdhar, one of the September 11, 2001 hijackers who had been living in the United States, could have been identified earlier with the bulk phone records program in place.

The senators write: