Judge: NSA Spying 'Almost Certainly' Unconstitutional

The NSA's massive collection of phone metadata is "almost certainly" unconstitutional, a federal judge declared in a blistering statement today. Judge Richard Leon issued an injunction banning the agency from spying on the plaintiffs in the lawsuit he was reviewing—legal analyst Larry Klayman and one of his clients—though he suspended that injunction to allow the government to appeal, Politico and the Wall Street Journal report. Leon called the program "almost Orwellian," writing, "I cannot imagine a more 'indiscriminate' and 'arbitrary invasion'" of privacy.

"I have little doubt that the author of our Constitution, James Madison, who cautioned us to beware 'the abridgment of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power,' would be aghast," he added, according to the Blog of the Legal Times. (More Edward Snowden stories.)