Via AFP:
A US judge ruled Friday that the National Security Agency's mass surveillance of telephone calls is lawful, igniting a legal conflict that the Supreme Court may ultimately have to resolve.
Federal judge William Pauley in New York threw out a petition from the American Civil Liberties Union and said the program was a vital tool to help prevent an Al-Qaeda terror attack on American soil.
Ten days earlier, however, a federal judge in Washington declared that this "almost Orwellian" surveillance is probably unconstitutional, laying the groundwork for a protracted legal fight.
"The questi...
