Federal appeals court says NSA phone metadata collection can continue
The article's lede ("[y]ou gotta love this twisted logic") makes no sense. The court originally halted the program because it was not authorized by statute. Congress revised the statute to dismantle the program, but provided for a 180 day transition. The ACLU sought an injunction to dismantle the program immediately. The Court held that the 180 day transition period in the USA Freedom Act authorized the program during the wind-down. There is absolutely nothing "twisted" about that logic. It's plainly what Congress intended, and consistent with the court's earlier decision.<p>If you want to fault the court, fault it for punting on the Constitutional question. The court properly declined to answer it last time, because it could decide the case on the alternate basis that the program was unauthorized by statute (the doctrine of Constitutional avoidance). But this time the question was squarely presented. If the NSA program is unconstitutional, Congress cannot authorize it, even for 180 days.<p>The court had a valid reason to avoid deciding the constitutional issue: this was a motion for preliminary injunction, and probably an inappropriate context for deciding a major Constitutional question. But it's not clear to me that the court had the <i>discretion</i> to avoid the issue now.