Writing in an Aug. 29 opinion, Judge Claire Eagan said the Constitution’s protection against “unreasonable searches” was not triggered by such searches because dialing records — unlike the words spoken on a phone call — are not private. She cited a 1979 Supreme Court ruling that made clear police can obtain phone records without a search warrant.
And, she said, Congress said the government could demand various business records that were “relevant” to a terrorism investigation, and the mass of phone records were potentially useful for tracking suspected terrorists here or abroad.
“The concept of relevance here is in fact broad and amounts to a relatively low standard,” said Eagan, a district judge from Oklahoma who sits part time on the 11-member Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
The judge also said members of Congress had little reason to express surprise that the NSA was secretly collecting phone data under a provision in the Patriot Act.
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