NSA電話監聽計劃被裁定非法

The National Security Agency programme that collects information on the phone calls of tens of millions of Americans suffered its most significant legal setback when it was ruled illegal by a federal appeals court on Thursday.

週四，美國國家安全局(NSA)通過數以千萬計美國人的電話收集信息的計劃遭遇最大法律挫折，原因是當日一家聯邦上訴法庭裁定該計劃非法。

The three-judge panel ruled that the programme exposed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden was not permitted by the Patriot Act, the sweeping counterterror bill passed by Congress in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

這一由三名法官組成的小組裁定，《愛國者法案》(Patriot Act)並不許可這一由NSA前合同工愛德華•斯諾登(Edward Snowden)曝光的計劃。《愛國者法案》是9•11恐怖襲擊之後，美國國會通過的一項全面反恐議案。

The ruling comes at a politically sensitive moment for the NSA as Congress is beginning to debate whether to renew the section of the Patriot Act, which had been used to justify the bulk collection programme.

對於NSA來說，這一裁決的出臺正值一個政治敏感時期，因爲國會正要開始就是否更新《愛國者法案》的一個章節開展辯論，而該章節一直被用來爲大規模信息收集計劃提供法律依據。

Although intelligence officials have said the data are critical for counter-terrorism missions, there is a strong push in Congress to either abolish the programme or place substantial limits on it.

雖然情報機構的官員曾表示這些數據對反恐任務至關重要，但是美國國會依然在強勢推動對此類計劃的改革，他們要求要麼廢除該計劃，要麼對其加以大量限制。

The judges from the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit did not address the issue of whether the data collection programme violated the constitution and its prohibition against “unreasonable seizures and searches”.

來自美國聯邦上訴法院第二巡迴審判庭的法官並未提到，這一數據收集計劃是否違反了憲法及憲法對“無理搜查和扣押”的禁止。

However, in a 97-page ruling, they said that the section of the Patriot Act, which allows law enforcement to collect business records that are considered relevant to counterterror investigations, could not be used to allow such broad sweeps of call data.

不過，在長達97頁的判決書中，法官們表示《愛國者法案》的一章不能用來作爲批准這類全面電話數據收集計劃的法律依據。該章節允許執法機構收集被視爲與反恐調查密切相關的商業記錄。

“The statutes to which the government points have never been interpreted to authorise anything approaching the breadth of the sweeping surveillance at issue here,” wrote Judge Gerard Lynch wrote for the panel. “The sheer volume of information sought is staggering.”

替該法官小組執筆的傑勒德•林奇法官(Judge Gerard Lynch)寫道：“在此處涉及的問題上，全面監控計劃涵蓋的範圍太大，政府所援引法規的任何司法解釋從未批准如此大範圍的監控。所蒐集信息的規模之大是驚人的。”

The ruling added: “Such expansive development of government repositories of formerly private records would be an unprecedented contraction of the privacy expectations of all Americans.”

該裁決書補充說：“政府對原本的私人記錄的內容做如此大幅度的擴張存儲，會史無前例地壓縮所有美國人對個人隱私的預期。”