Supremes turn down surveillance case

Politico 

The Supreme Court on Monday passed up an opportunity to weigh in on the constitutionality of the National Security Agency's collection of a massive database containing information on virtually every telephone call made to, from or within the United States.

The justices' action makes it unlikely the high court will provide a definitive answer on the question during its current term.

Acting without comment or indication of dissent on Monday, the justices turned down a petition from the Electronic Privacy Information Center seeking to have the Supreme Court perform a direct review of a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court order authorizing the call-tracking program under the PATRIOT Act—a controversial anti-terrorism statute passed a few weeks after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The EPIC petition sought a form of review called "mandamus," which is granted by the court even more rarely than its typical cases known as "petitions for certiorari." The Obama administration argued in a brief filed last month that the direct review was not legally appropriate.