Courthouse News reports:
The ongoing shutdown of the U.S. government cannot delay the lawsuit over the constitutionality of a secret surveillance program on Americans, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.
National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden had brought the alleged dragnet to light by leaking a secret court order showing that the NSA had forced Verizon to “turn over every day, metadata about the calls made by each of its subscribers over a three-month period ending on July 19, 2013.”
In its June lawsuit, the American Civil Liberties Union and its New York affiliate slammed the surveillance as unconstitutional.
Progression of the case stumbled as the U.S. government entered its first partial government shutdown in 17 years on Oct. 1.
Chief U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska with the Southern District of New York then ordered a toll on all civil cases requiring counsel from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
U.S. District Judge William Pauley III lifted that stay Tuesday.
Read more on Courthouse News.
Yeah, the argument that they have enough manpower to keep surveilling us during the shutdown but not to defend their actions in court doesn’t fly.