By Robert Laurie ——Bio and Archives--May 7, 2015
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In a 97-page ruling, a three-judge panel for the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that a provision of the Act permitting the Federal Bureau of Investigation to collect business records deemed relevant to a counterterrorism investigation cannot be legitimately interpreted to permit the systematic bulk collection of domestic calling records. The ruling was certain to increase the tension that has been building in Congress because the provision of the Patriot Act that has been cited to justify the bulk data collection program will expire in June unless lawmakers pass a bill to extend it. It is the first time a higher-level court in the regular judicial system has reviewed the program, which since 2006 has repeatedly been approved in secret by a national security court. This is the first of three such cases. Two other parallel hearings are still pending in other appeals courts.
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