The Supreme Court could address National Security Agency wiretapping earlier than expected. But they're just as likely to ignore it.
A non-profit group is asking the court to block an order by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, or FISA, that permitting the NSA to gather telephone "metadata" – information on phone calls including numbers called, phone call duration, date, time, and location of the parties – from millions of Verizon customers. The order includes calls made within the U.S.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center filed the emergency petition with the Supreme Court on Monday, according to Yahoo! News. EPIC is a Verizon customer.
EPIC is asking for a writ of mandamus – an order from a higher court to a lower court – from SCOTUS to the FISA court. EPIC says on its website that it sought relief from the high court because it is unable to challenge the order in the FISA court, which is non-adversarial (the government argues their requests to FISA ton only a judge, not an adversarial party).
"Surveillance of all domestic telephone records exposes confidential and privileged associations. It chills free expression − political, associative, religious, or otherwise," EPIC wrote in its petition. "And because the NSA sweeps up judicial and Congressional communications, it inappropriately concentrates power to the Executive Branch by allowing them to surveil the constitutionally mandated roles of the other branches of government."
According to Yahoo!, petitions like EPIC's are "rarely granted."