NSA Illegally Collected Emails of Americans With No Terrorism Links

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper declassified documents Wednesday confirming that the National Security Agency illegally gathered up to 56,000 emails of Americans who had no ties to terrorism.

Over a three-year period, the NSA gathered thousands of electronic communications between Americans in a now-defunct program. The 86-page court opinion from 2011 (embedded in full below) details why John D. Bates, chief judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA), ruled the collection method unconstitutional. The NSA revised the program one month after the ruling