NSA wins key ruling in years-old phone and Internet spying lawsuit

The EFF's "Team Jewel."

The case, known as Jewel v. NSA, was originally brought by the EFF on behalf of Carolyn Jewel, a romance novelist who lives in Petaluma, California, north of San Francisco. For years, the case stalled in the court system, but it gained new life after the Edward Snowden disclosures in 2013.

Despite the NSA's victory in its partial summary judgment, there are a number of issues left to be adjudicated in Jewel.

The judge's ruling only concerned Upstream Internet surveillance, not the telephone records collection nor other mass surveillance that are also at issue in Jewel, Kurt Opsahl, an EFF attorney, told Ars, referring to the governments program to capture data directly off of fiber optic cables.

We will continue to fight to end NSA mass surveillance, he added.

US District Judge Jeffrey White, in his 10-page order, found that the lead plaintiff lacked standinge.g., she was unable to show that she specifically was surveilled. Beyond the question of standing, the court found it was not able to evaluate her claims without violating national security.

As Judge White wrote:

Based on the public record, the Court finds that the Plaintiffs have failed to establish a sufficient factual basis to find they have standing to sue under the Fourth Amendment regarding the possible interception of their Internet communications. Further, having reviewed the Government Defendants classified submissions, the Court finds that the Claim must be dismissed because even if Plaintiffs could establish standing, a potential Fourth Amendment Claim would have to be dismissed on the basis that any possible defenses would require impermissible disclosure of state secret information.

The standing issue here is similar to a 2013 Supreme Court decision known as Clapper v. Amnesty International. That case found that the plaintiffs (such as Guantanamo Bay lawyers) who had strong evidence to believe that they were being spied upon but could not demonstrate it to the Supreme Courts standard, could not bring their case.

During a December 2014 hearing in federal court in Oakland, California, Judge White heard arguments from both sides in his attempt to wrestle with the plaintiffs July 2014 motion for partial summary judgment.

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NSA wins key ruling in years-old phone and Internet spying lawsuit