U.S. Can’t Evade Bulk Surveillance Legal Challenge

A Pittsburgh lawyer will get another chance to challenge the National Security Agency’s PRISM surveillance program as a federal appeals court revived his lawsuit that claims the agency’s “dragnet” swept up his private e-mails (Schuchardt v. Obama, 2016 BL 332347, 3d Cir., 15-3491, 10/5/16).

A federal judge threw out Elliott Schuchardt’s suit for failing to show that his own communications had been intercepted by the government. The appeals court found his claim that the government captures all, or almost all, of the e-mails sent by U.S. citizens was enough to revive the case, at least for now.

Schuchardt’s has ...