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On June 11, 2013, the ACLU filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of the National Security Agency鈥檚 mass collection of Americans鈥� phone records. The complaint argues that the dragnet violates the right to privacy protected by the Fourth Amendment as well as the freedoms of speech and association protected by the First Amendment. The complaint also charges that the program exceeds the authority that Congress provided in Section 215 of the Patriot Act. In May 2015, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that the call-records program violates Section 215 of the Patriot Act. Weeks later, on June 1, 2015, Section 215 briefly expired for the first time since the passage of the Patriot Act in 2001. The next day, Congress passed the USA Freedom Act, which amended Section 215 to prohibit the bulk collection of Americans鈥� call records.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), enacted by Congress after the abuses of the 1960s and 70s, regulates the government鈥檚 conduct of intelligence surveillance inside the United States. It generally requires the government to seek warrants before monitoring Americans鈥� communications. In 2001, however, President Bush authorized the National Security Agency to launch a warrantless wiretapping program, and in 2008 Congress ratified and expanded that program, giving the NSA almost unchecked power to monitor Americans鈥� international phone calls and emails. In February 2013, the Supreme Court dismissed the ACLU's lawsuit challenging the law.

In May 2011, the ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Justice Department seeking information about the government's use and interpretation of Patriot Act Section 215, which authorizes the government to obtain 鈥渁ny tangible thing鈥� that is 鈥渞elevant to鈥� a terrorism investigation. Our subsequent FOIA lawsuit to enforce the request compelled the government to release dozens of documents, although many others were withheld from the ACLU and the public. The ACLU continued to fight for additional disclosures concerning the government鈥檚 use of Section 215 to secretly collect Americans鈥� information in bulk, but the district court eventually granted the government鈥檚 motion for summary judgment in March 2015.