The Electronic Privacy Information Center asked the Supreme Court today to halt the National Security Agency's spy program that collects phone records on millions of people.

EPIC, a non-profit based in Washington, D.C., argues in its petition that there is no alternative court to review a secret court's order – disclosed by the Guardian last month – requiring Verizon to forward all calling metadata to the National Security Agency.

The Guardian had posted a leaked copy of a top secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court opinion demanding Verizon Business provide the NSA the phone numbers of both parties involved in all calls, the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) number for mobile callers, calling card numbers used in the call, and the time and duration of the calls. The authorities subsequently confirmed the opinion's authenticity, and they also said the order was renewed every three months. Presumably, the secret court is signing off on orders from other telcos too.

The petition is one of a handful of legal challenges to the domestic spying program, and comes as Congress, and the President Barack Obama administration, are defending the surveillance program.

The law in question that has been authorizing the surveillance is the Patriot Act, adopted six weeks after the 2001 terror attacks, which greatly expanded the government's power to intrude into the private lives of Americans.

One of the most controversial provisions of the Patriot Act – Section 215 – allows the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to authorize broad warrants for most any type of records, including those held by banks, doctors and phone companies. Lawmakers have repeatedly voted to prevent the act from expiring. The government only needs to show that the information is "relevant" to an authorized investigation. No connection to a terrorist or spy is required.

In its petition, EPIC claims that all calling records cannot be relevant to an investigation.

"The ongoing collection of the domestic telephone records of millions of Americans by the NSA, untethered to any particular investigation, is beyond the authority granted by Congress to the FISC …" the petition (.pdf) said.

Meanwhile, two other suits against the government have been lodged in lower federal courts in the wake of the NSA leaks by Edward Snowden.

One suit was brought by Larry Klayman, the former chairman of Judicial Watch, who claims the government has illegally spied on his Verizon accounts. The other suit was lodged by the American Civil Liberties Union, whose employees are Verizon customers.

All of the suits seemingly have an uphill battle.

Last year, for example, a federal appeals court ruled that the government may spy on Americans' communications without fear of being sued.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that when Congress wrote the law regulating eavesdropping on Americans and spies, it never waived sovereign immunity in the section prohibiting targeting Americans without warrants. That means Congress did not allow for aggrieved Americans to sue the government, even if their constitutional rights were violated by the United States breaching its own wiretapping laws.

A lower court judge found in 2010 that two American lawyers' telephone conversations with their clients in Saudi Arabia were siphoned to the NSA without warrants. The allegations were initially based on a classified document the government accidentally mailed to the former al-Haramain Islamic Foundation lawyers Wendell Belew and Asim Ghafoor.

"Al-Haramain can bring a suit for damages against the United States for use of the collected information, but cannot bring suit against the government for collection of the information itself," the appeals court wrote. "Although such a structure may seem anomalous and even unfair, the policy judgment is one for Congress, not the courts."

In another case, the Electronic Frontier Foundation sued AT&T and other telcos, accusing them of funneling all electronic communications to the NSA. In response, Congress passed legislation immunizing AT&T and any other telecommunications companies from being sued for assisting the NSA.

The EFF subsequently sued the government over the same allegations. That case is pending in a San Francisco federal court.