THE US National Security Agency may have to go back to asking permission before snooping on international calls.
A federal judge ruled last week that the agency鈥檚 programme of wiretapping telephone calls and online communications without a warrant, approved by President Bush in 2001, is unconstitutional. Judge Anna Diggs Taylor ruled that the practice violates the fourth amendment, the constitutional separation of powers, and a 1978 law requiring intelligence agencies to obtain a warrant from a secret court before wiretapping people in the US.
Taylor ordered the programme be shut down, although both sides in the case 鈥� the Department of Justice and the American Civil Liberties Union 鈥� have agreed the order will not be enforced until a hearing on 7 September.
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