Obama, Verizon, NSA sued for collecting U.S. citizens’ phone call data

Three individuals have filed the first lawsuit aimed at disputing the constitutionality of NSA’s collection of metadata on phone calls made by or to U.S. citizens.

Larry Klayman, American attorney and activist as well as a former prosecutor in the U.S. Department of Justice, is suing U.S. President Barack Obama, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, NSA director Keith B. Alexander, Verizon Communications CEO Lowell McAdam, Judge Roger Vinson of the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, as well as Verizon Communications, the NSA and the U.S. DOJ, in his and in the name of Charles and Mary Ann Strange, parents of Michael Strange, a Navy officer that was killed in Afghanistan.

According to the suit, the all the defendants “have illegally collaborated in the surveillance program, which has violated the law and damaged the fundamental freedoms of American citizens.”

The plaintiffs claims that the defendants’ actions have violated their constitutional rights, their reasonable expectation of privacy, free speech and association, their right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures, and their due process rights, as well as those of other U.S. citizens and Verizon customers.

They want the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to issue a cease and desist order to prohibit this type of illegal and criminal activity occurring now and in the future, the already collected phone records to be deleted by the government, full disclosure on what the defendants have done, and for Judge Vinson to be disciplined “for violating the law and hisoath of office to protect and to uphold the U.S. Constitution.”