Serious doubts about the legality of NSA gathering phone records

A judge has ruled that the US National Security Agency's (NSA) gathering of Americans' phone records is likely unlawful.

The judgement on the so-called metadata counter terrorism programme was made yesterday by District Judge Richard Leon, appointed by Republican President George W Bush in 2002, raising "serious doubts" about the value of the scheme.

"I cannot imagine a more 'indiscriminate' and 'arbitrary invasion' than this systematic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every single citizen," he wrote in a 68-page ruling.

The Department of Justice said it was reviewing the ruling in a case brought by Larry Klayman, a conservative lawyer, and Charles Strange, described in court documents as the father of a cryptologist technician for the NSA who was killed in Afghanistan in 2011.

The judge ordered the government to stop collecting data about the two plaintiffs, who were Verizon Communications customers, though Leon suspended enforcement of his injunction against the program "in light of the significant national security interests at stake in this case and the novelty of the constitutional issues" pending an expected appeal by the government.

An official said an appeal was likely and Verizon declined comment.