A federal appeals court has ruled that the bulk collections of your phone records is illegal.

In a nearly 100-page ruling, the court vacated a lower court’s decision and stated that the bulk collection of metadata is not authorized by section 215 of The Patriot Act – the section upon which the surveillance programs have been operating for years.

“The district court held that § 215 of the PATRIOT Act impliedly precludes judicial review; that plaintiffs‐appellants’ statutory claims regarding the scope of § 215 would in any event fail on the merits; and that § 215 does not violate the Fourth or First Amendments to the United States Constitution.  We disagree in part, and hold that § 215 and the statutory scheme to which it relates do not preclude judicial review, and that the bulk telephone metadata program is not authorized by § 215,” said the federal appeals court.

The case was originally filed in 2013 by the ACLU, and subsequently thrown out. This ruling amends that error.

“This appeal concerns the legality of the bulk telephone metadata collection program (the “telephone metadata program”), under which the National Security Agency (“NSA”) collects in bulk “on an ongoing daily basis” the metadata associated with telephone calls made by and to Americans, and aggregates those metadata into a repository or data bank that can later be queried.  Appellants challenge the program on statutory and constitutional grounds. Because we find that the program exceeds the scope of what Congress has authorized, we vacate the decision below dismissing the complaint without reaching appellants’ constitutional arguments,” said Circuit judge Gerard E. Lynch.

Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who has shepherded NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden’s revelations to the public, was pleased with the ruling and suggested that it should make many rethink their views on Snowden.

Maybe someone who reveals a secret program that multiple federal judges say is ILLEGAL is a whistleblower who deserves gratitude-not prison?

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 7, 2015

Essence of court ruling: as broad and sweeping as Patriot Act is, it never authorized something as extreme as NSA bulk domestic surveillance

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 7, 2015

Court did not formally rule on constitutionality of NSA program- because it found it's illegal – but made clear those are "serious" concerns

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 7, 2015

Rand Paul is already using the ruling in a campaign tweet:

The phone records of law abiding citizens are none of the NSA's business! Pleased with the ruling this morning. pic.twitter.com/y4FBePt6h6

— Dr. Rand Paul (@RandPaul) May 7, 2015

As Wired points out, this decision could pave the way for a full legal challenge of the NSA and its surveillance initiatives.

You can read the entire ruling below:

Clapper Ca2 Opinion

Image via Trevor Paglen, Wikimedia Commons