A conservative activist has filed a lawsuit against U.S. President Barack Obama, the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. National Security Agency after news reports that the NSA has been collecting the phone records of a large number of Verizon Communications customers. Larry Klayman, the founder of watchdog websites Judicial Watch and Freedom Watch and a former DOJ prosecutor, filed the lawsuit Friday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, he said in a statement on the Freedom Watch site. Also named as defendants in the lawsuit are U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, NSA Director Keith Alexander, Verizon, and Roger Vinson, the judge who signed the order allowing the surveillance. Reasons for filing the suit: “Here, there is no doubt that this massive illegal seizure had to be authorized and approved at the highest levels of the executive branch, which necessarily leads to the president, attorney general, and the director of the NSA,” Klayman said on the website. “These violations of free speech, prohibitions against unreasonable search and seizure, and due process rights are unprecedented in American history.” The surveillance violates the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution
Posted on: Sun, 09 Jun 2013 22:23:55 +0000