ACLU sues US government to learn more about NSA call records program

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has sued several federal agencies in an effort to learn more about surveillance of Americans’ phone calls and financial records, according to The Associated Press.
The ACLU filed the lawsuit Friday in federal court in Manhattan and says that the federal government hasn’t answered requests made last month by the ACLU for additional information about surveillance under a 2015 law, the AP reported. The ACLU made the requests through the Freedom of Information Act.
The defendants in the lawsuit include the National Security Agency (NSA), the director of national intelligence, the CIA and the Justice Department.
{mosads}The 2015 law was created to put limits on NSA’s surveillance of Americans’ phone calls after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked classified information from the NSA in 2013 that revealed surveillance programs.
But those limits are scheduled to come to an end in 2019, according to the AP, and the ACLU is arguing that more information needs to be made public before the law is either changed or reauthorized.
The ACLU says in the lawsuit that it is concerned that the government hasn’t acted on its request for additional information because the request “relates to sweeping surveillance activities that implicate core privacy and free speech rights of Americans,” the AP reported.
Through the lawsuit, the ACLU asked a judge to force the government to process the request and issue relevant information immediately.
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