Idaho moms suit over NSA database gets a cool reception from appeals court

An Idaho woman named Anna Smith filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the NSA telephone database. She was represented by her husband, Peter Smith, pictured above at today's 9th Circuit hearing.

Screenshot via 9th Circuit

Since the Snowden leaks first made clear the US government's sweeping database of phone call data, four separate legal challenges to that program have been filed in federal courts. Three of them now await decision from appeals courts.

This morning, a federallawsuit directlychallenging the NSA's vast phone call database was heard by the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. And the three-judge panel that heard Smith v. Obamaseemed skeptical of the plaintiff's claims that the database should be ruled unconstitutional.

Her husband Peter Smith, who argued the appeal thismorning, is a commercial litigator with no experience handling aconstitutional or national security lawsuit. For the appeal, Smith accepted legal help from the American Civil Liberties Unionand Electronic Frontier Foundation, both of which have their own lawsuits challenging the NSA database.

The government has long argued thatit doesn't need a warrant to get phone "metadata" like the numbers called and duration of call.The main legal precedent it relies on is a 1975 case called Smith v. Maryland.

In today's argument, Peter Smith tried to differentiate his case from Smith v. Maryland.

"Smith v. Maryland involved a single defendant with a pen register on his phone for threedays," said Smith. "Today, we have dragnet [surveillance] every single day. Tonight they'lldownload the call records, tomorrow they'll download the call recordsand they'll keep them for five years."

The ability to analyze metadatahas vastly improved as well, he noted.

"When you can do the hops, and see the connectionsyou can see thatAnnacalled her doctor, Annacalled her mother," he said. "It can reveal a lot about a person.It can reveal relationships."

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Idaho moms suit over NSA database gets a cool reception from appeals court