Government Seeks Pause in NSA Wiretapping Class Action Lawsuit

The White House, FBI, and National Security Agency asked a federal judge to stay an NSA wiretapping class action lawsuit filed by Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, who is seeking an injunction on data collection practices that are allegedly in violation of the Fourth Amendment, until a judge decides in a similar class action lawsuit.

That NSA wiretapping class action lawsuit, filed by former U.S Justice Department Prosecutor Larry Klayman, alleges that the NSA programs, including one known as “PRISM,” pry data from Americans that can lead to the “revealing [of] personal details about an individual’s familial, political, professional, religious and intimate associations.” On April 23, the government filed urged the federal judge overseeing Sen. Paul’s class action lawsuit, saying that their appeal of an injunction on the program takes precedence.

Since both NSA class action lawsuits both revolve around the rights of citizens and whether or not the practices, reportedly done pursuant to section 215 of the PATRIOT Act, Assistant Attorney General Stuart F. Delery wrote in the motion to stay that questions of fact would be similar. He is hopeful that, in contrast to the NSA spying class action lawsuits “may be resolved on a dispositive motion for lack of standing, or failure to state a claim.”

In the Paul’s NSA class action lawsuit, Paul alleged that the Mass Associational Tracking Program constituted illegal NSA wiretapping because there was no evidence that the data collected corresponded with that of people “connected with international terrorism.” Further, it is allegedly not even effective regardless of any Fourth Amendment issues as the system “has not stopped or been instrumental in stopping even one imminent international terrorist attack, or otherwise assisted… in achieving any time-sensitive objective.”

The class action lawsuits regarding NSA wiretapping came as a result of revelations made public by former contractor Edward Snowden in 2013. Lawmakers in Congress and President Barack Obama have proposed changes to the system either via a modification of procedures, updates to the PATRIOT Act, or some combination of the two.

Paul is represented by class action lawsuit attorneys Trey Mayfield and Michael P. Lewis of The Lewis Firm PLLC and Kenneth T. Cuccinelli of Cuccinelli & Associates LLC.

The NSA Wiretapping Class Action Lawsuit filed by the senator is Rand Paul, et al. v. Barack Obama, et al., Case No. 14-cv-0262 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Set for appeal is Klayman v. Obama, Case No. 13-cv-00851 in the same district.