judge leon ignored precedent, ignored smith versus maryland the case that you cited. the 15 judges on 30 occasions that upheld the lawfulness of this. then judge pauly in the 7th district of new york within a week issued another warning saying -- saying that this was inherently constitutional. and judge pauly relied on precedent. judge leon relied on exclamation points throughout his judgment not precedent. >> also said this is likely unconstitutional. this collection violates the 4th amendment, you disagree? >> i do. i'm not a judge, i'm not a lawyer i do know there is one controlling supreme court case, smith versus maryland, in which the court has said in 5-3 decision that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy over this kind of data. >> once you hand your data over to a third party. >> right. >> now it's also been explored that tapped fiber optic cables abroad, circumvented or capped encryption codes and covertly included code. all that have is -- >> against people not protected by the 4th amendment to the constitution, the constitution doesn't tore in to th

so there is judge leon saying, 34-year-old constitutional thinking is now outdated but then judge leonyear-old constitutional thinking for the most dramatic flourish in his opinion. "indeed i have little doubt that the author of our constitution, james madison who cautioned us to beware the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power would be aghast." that line is there as nothing more than a rhetorical flourish, an attention getter for the media. that line has no legal meaning or import. it's something judges do all the time to try to align their decision with the great minds of the founding fathers. there is no more abused judicial advice to invoke one of the founding fathers and assign a judicial opinion to him. and politicians do it all the time, too, telling you that the founding fathers would be aghast at this or that. let's just get something straight about the founding fathers. we have no idea how they would react to the modern world. judge leon's opinion is a well-written, well-reasoned opinion that might prevail on appeal and it

started the warrantless wiretapping program judge leon was appointed to the bench and the senate striking the program that was started in secret illegally and unconstitutional by the president who nominated him is now the one the judge leon i think proving the independence of branch of the federal judiciary. is taking some pains to restrain and place constitutional limits on so there's this presidential review group going to. president obama's review of these programs and he says any leaks out of that in the sense of what's going on there have been a couple weeks the first of them is that the review commission the review board had recommended to the white house to split the n.s.a. between a military command and a civilian command and the word on the street at least is that the white house has declined that recommendation and will instead ensure that the n.s.a. remains a strictly military instrument there are going to be any number of other recommendations the full contours of which will not be known until next month interestingly enough after the white house has a chance to first review t

monday's ruling by judge leon who was appointed by george w. bush, is the first to call the telephone program unconstitutional. 15 other judges on a special court to review classified programs have upheld it on 35 different occasions. >> this is the beginning of a conversation but it's not the end of the conversation.

. >> reporter: but in his decision, judge leon questioned whether the program even works, saying the government does not cite a single instance where the program actually stopped an imminent attack. the case is one of several filed after former national security contractor edward snowden leaked details of the program's

. >> now, on the subject of the intelligence and nsa collection, a respected federal judge, judge leon, calling it near orwellian nsa collection of massive phone records. i know it's not content but phone records. a lot of reforms, including your own, have been suggested but not yet in place. there's disagreement about the reforms. what do you say to the judge. this was a first time there was a hearing that unlike the fisa court was an adversarial proceeding. >> this was not the first time. last month there was a hearing of a case, the case of someone providing financial and other support to al shabaab. it took place in the southern district of california. the judge was jeffrey miller. he found the 215 program was constitutional. and the point of issue was specifically that. so you have one case a month ago, which has not been reported on that i've seen, and you have the case of a few days ago which has been reported on extensively. what does this all mean? this means that clearly it's going to go up on appeal and go to the supreme court. i very much would urge the court to take the ca

in the future and hopefully that case by judge leon will when that's way up to the supreme court sooner rather than later to get a similar kind of ruling just one rate ak you are one of the leading tech leading global thinkers of twenty thirteen here on foreign policy magazine i encourage people to go out and read it you're also the national security and human rights director at the government accountability project thank you so much thank you. at guantanamo bay two long time detainees have been transferred out of the camp into their native country of sudan this comes just days after two saudi detainees were transferred so it appears as if the obama administration is finally making good on its war to begin the process to close the facility down for good in his detainee assessment leaked to the new york times by wiki leaks even to him off many breaking either it is described as a veteran al qaeda member who served as osama bin laden's courier in the one nine hundred ninety s. he was captured by pakistani forces back in two thousand and one while attempting to cross the afghanistan pakist

circuit but i also think judge leon didn't have as much information in front of him as the 15 differentlso ruled on this program and declared to it be constitutional. so we'll see how it plays out in the appellate process. i think there's a lot less here than meets the eye as the "new york times" and you point out. it's a limited ruling, applies only to the plaintiffs and that itself was stayed by judge leon. >> katty kay? >> i want to ask you one thing general hayden. during this 68 page ruling judge leon said the government never presented an example in wish the collection of this data led to the prevention of an imminent attack or imminent threat against the united states. in this balance of security versus privacy what the judge is ruling is that the security benefits of this program did not justify the amount of collection of data and the invasion of privacy. >> that's a tough question for the court to rule on, katty. i really mean this. i mean no disrespect for the judge or judicial process. but the judge has expertise when it comes to rule of law and constitutional theory. the ju

>> they certainly think judge leon is wrong. united on that. as for the report i think what any will say is we recognize we take some hits. what would be devastating to them is if the president accepts all of the recommendations. that is simply taking away too many tools, they believe. a strong feeling, not a unanimous one that they should concede the phone program. let the phone companies keep that in the name of or in hopes of theerving other parts intelligence community's efforts especially the ability to look overseas internet communications which they frankly think are more important. gwen: i found a couple of things curious. one that the tech c.e.o.'s came and had thisvalley big meeting in the white house which they all kept to themselves. the very next day the president will release this ortiz hits white house came out and panelhey will release the review which we weren't supposed to see until next month. while everybody was looking at shaking hands with raul castro last week in south africa right next to him was the of brazil who cancel

you have judge leon in the district court of dc saying yes. fisa court judges say no. so what is going to play out here is what is our definition of what privacy should be and what spying should be. >> yeah. i mean, let's take a look at some examples. the nsa reportedly, according to the new york times, illegally and inappropriately accessed former president bill clinton's e-mail. does that count as abuse? >> i think that is. there are certainly cases of individuals abusing their responsibilities in nsa and doing things they shouldn't. so to say there is no abuse is wrong. what peter king is saying is that the program of capturing metadata isn't abuse at all, because it's constitutional, permissible. other people would say no. in fact, that isn't abuse. so the question is not whether there are individual cases of abuse. the question is, were those caught by oversight. and were those people disciplined. and the answer to those questions is undoubtedly yes. >> i think judge leon, you know, you mentioned that ruling last week. his view is he disag

judge leon said we didn't find evidence of that. >> that is a good.onitoring millions of phone cultures alls of millions people. you are coming up with mi277 reports and we are better off focusing on ground floor intelligence and not casting this net of privacy. he said they are growning in useless data and it is hurting their ability to conduct legit mate surveillance. thank you. >> well, top story for a lot of people is new year's coming? are you going to make the same one again this year? that you are going to lose wait? we are going to save you time and pounds. we are going to talk to a nutritionist who is going to tell us whether or not we should get on the scale next. >>> let me know on twitter if i'm about to talk about you. are you making that same resolution this year where you are going to take off that excess weight? joining me now with how to set a goal and stick wit. she is also a certified diabetes speciali specialist. you have a new book called healthy habits you want to take us through. >> i had my clients throw away the scale. oh you

district court judge richard leon said in a ruling that the n.s.a. has mass we have of phone records are probably unconstitutional judge leon who was appointed by george w. bush of all people the last of the n.s.a. surveil. program in his ruling saying that he could not imagine a more indiscriminate an arbitrary invasion and this systemic and high tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every single citizen for purposes of querying it and analyzing it without judicial approval first judge leon's landmark ruling wouldn't have been possible at all without edward snowden's leaks as it were obvious before it should be now snowden has forced the powers that be to reckon with the reality of an out of control surveillance state but whether those powers like it or not the times of change they're now on the defensive joining me now for more on all this is n.s.a. whistleblower william binney. mr binney welcome to the program thank you thanks for joining us let's start out with the president's. report this to this group that he assembled the

judge richard leon ruled that the phone metadata collection is likely in violation of the constitution, specifically the fourth amendment prohibitions against unreasonable search and seizure. >> the judge wrote: >> in the ruling judge leon stayed the injunction, he wants to give the government time to appeal. for the time being the metadata collection conditions on, there's a ruling that the government will defend on appeal. >> the white house deferred action to the department of justice. they put out a statement, saying they have seen the court ruling, they are studying it: >> this is the secret court in the center the of the controversy, that hears appeals when the intelligence community wants to go for warrants and other tools to look into potential terrorist or security threats, they go to the court, and the department of justice points out on 35 separate occasions they authorised just the sort of telephonic metadata collection that the court addressed today. now, the man at the center of this controversy, edward snowden, has released a statement that reads in part: >> there'll be

. >> that's federal judge leon. here's what he said a couple weeks ago: i cannot imagine a more indiscriminate and or temporary invasion than the systemic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every single citizen for purposes of querying and analyzing it without prior judicial approval. i. >>> here's the question. one federal judge in d.c. saying, it's illegal what the nsa is doing. then another federal judge in new york, saying it's legal. what are we supposed to do? which one takes precedent? which one do we turn to as the final arbiter of the nsa? >> no our system the supreme court now has the issue in its lap. they have not taken up either of these cases or any case about the nsa surveillance, but it's a pretty certain enough that these two differing opinions are out there that the supreme court will. unfortunately, the judge pauley in today's case has given them, if they want to do it, sort of read ya -- ready excuse to watch their hands, saying in 1979, we save if you gave this

judge leon said, you know, i'm here.briefing to show why this was necessary. nobody has done that. he really challenged the idea that it was necessary to keep us safe. and also he really did call the government on its reliance on smith versus maryland. this case that we talked about. >> the old case. >> he made a point. he said that there are people who are probably reading this decision on their phones. that the phone -- the phone that the court was talking about -- >> just dorky people. >> i heard it on my phone. but the 1979 case involved a robber, single suspect who the police already knew. they already knew that was probably their guy. and they just wanted to see if he was the one making threatening calls to a witness. it's -- that has been stretched to look for people. >> that's been reversed and that's the other big article in the "new yorker" out. this issue talks about going from targeting an individual person and getting clearance for that, because that's what we expect from the fourth amendment in the governme

judge leon, the first judge to look a at this in ad adversarial can text. i have served search warrants. if the place say, your honor, in zip code 07602, there's two guys talking about a bank robbery. can you let us listen to every folk in the zip code in hopes we find those two? i would have said get out. take a hike. that's basically what the nsa has been doing, except not with zip codes, they're doing it with the entire country and that's what the judge found in violation. >> we thought we might get the report by now but it's coming out presently, in the next few minutes. we kind of have an idea what's going on. to say it's a harsh rebuke and changes for the nsa might be overstating things. >> the nsa works for the president. the president on his own, without going to congress or involving the court, without involving budgetary issues can dial back the nsa. we don't know what they'll recommend. i doubt it will be over the top because the president and the president's lawyers defended what the nsa has been doing in this case before judge leon. they argued

he wrote -- judge leon was appointed to the bench by republican president george w. bush in 2002. on suspend enforcement of his injunction against the program pending an expected appeal by the government. the suit was brought by conservative attorney larry klayman, the founder of judicial watch them based on information leaked by former nsa contractor edward snowden. in a statement monday, snowden said -- snowden went on to say -- joining us in washington, d.c. is sascha meinrath, director of the new america foundation's open technology institute. he served as an expert witness who advise the review group on intelligence and two indications which was tasked by president obama to review the nsa activities. first, respond to the judge's ruling. >> it is his store. it is the very vanguard of the pushback that says constitutionally, legally, what has been taking place is unacceptable. i think it is a reaffirmation of both are for the memo rights, constitutional guaranteed right, in this constant interplay of balancing national security and individual rights. >> talk about the rulings s

so judge leon's opinion is going to be put to the test. but this is what is becoming a relatively rare victory for civil liberties. civil libertarians in the united states are very concerned about the roll back on individual rights and particularly privacy. this is a refreshing victory for that community. >> all right, professor turley, thanks so much. also jim acosta who was there earlier at the white house, appreciate it. >> thank you. >> very embarrassing for the white house. this was something that happened under the bush administration, that at first initially that president obama had campaigned against it and then eventually just embraced the whole thing, now being smacked down by the judge who says it's not constitutional. >> if it gets to the supreme court, that's where it's going to get really interesting. >> a new report might illustrate why it is so important for lawmakers to keep this government running, avoid the shutdown we saw in october. chinese hackers might have seized the moment the government shut down when no one was g

judge leon issued an injunction against the n.s.a. data collection but stayed that injunction pending appeal. judge pauly issued no such action after his ruling. should he have done something pending appeal? did he even have the latitude to do that? >> there is nothing for him to do pending appeal. he said there was nothing to claim and dismissed the case. the fact is the plaintiff can take an appeal if they want. i'm sure they will. and so there's -- there was nothing to enjoin. the program stayed in place. after both decisions, the program stayed in place. judge leon stayed his order that would have stopped it and judge pauly didn't issue any order that would have stopped it so there was nothing for him to stay. >> when you look at the decisions and where they came from and how they were made, there were a lot of interweaving lines here. you have a bush appointee here in washington, d.c. who is ruling against the government but basically ruling in favor of the american civil liberty union and then you have a democratically appointed

. >> reporter: in a 68-page ruling, judge richard leon said the government surveillance program was almost orwellian. and said i have little doubt that the author of our constitution james madison would be aghast at what the judge said amounts to an unreasonable such.

on monday federal judge richard leon issued a 68-page opinion saying the program that collects phone records of millions of people is probably unconstitutional. he added, quote, i have little doubt the author of our constitution james madison would be aghast. the government says the so- called met take data can help identify potential terrorists without infringing on privacy. former nsa contractor edward snowden exposed this and other secret monitoring programs earlier this year. top executives from companies like apple, facebook and google with users and customers concerned about government snooping are calling on the obama administration to scale back the surveillance practices. some firms are working on technology to shield user data from government spies. but in the case of telephone records, legal experts expect appellate courts to back the nsa. 15 judges have ruled 35 times to uphold the program. >> i think it's more likely than not that this case will be overturned. >> reporter: the white house says it is reviewing which spying programs should continue. ko im for cbs news, the

judge leon is not an intelligence expert. he went outside his lane. as a federal judge, he has no say at all on whether or not something is helpful or good or bad. he has to decide strictly the constitutionality and for him to say he wasn't impressed or wasn't convinced that it served an intelligence purpose, that's none of his business. the constitution has judges interpreting laws and applying it to the constitution. it's up to the president and the congress to define and decide whether or not something is of importance as far as intelligence is concerned. >> so the white house, the president appointed this independent panel to give him suggestions on recommendations on what to do with some of these nsa programs. we're expecting for him to detail his response to them next month. what do you think that president obama needs to tell the american people about the nsa programs and also about the concerns that so many americans have about their privacy when it relates to these programs? >> well, first of all, no one's privacy is being violated. it's up t

i think this latest move from judge leon, and i think it's very important that it actually came from judge leon, who was a bush appointee, who is not a liberal judge, who is not somebody who was appointed by a democratic president i think is really important. i think a lot of these things help to sort of change the public tide and i think change very much so what it is that he was trying to do and trying to say. i think that's having a huge impact. when does edward snowden leave rub russia? i don't know. where does he go? i'm sure that's still an open question and he doesn't know either. but these issues for him i think have really changed dramatically, even just in the last 24 hours. >> i would just add one thing very quickly. what's fascinating about the judge's ruling is that the nsa says we get sign off from the executive branch, legislative branch and judicial branch. now with this new panel coming back reporting to the president that this collection of meta data is probably unconstitutional. the executive branch has said it's not okay, the judiciary has said it's not okay and n

another federal judge, richard leon, says the nsa's bulk data collection not okay because there's no proof it can stop terrorist attacks. now one former cia director is pointing out what he believes is a key difference in those roger goodellings aside from the obvious headlines. >> judge pauly relied on precedent. judge leon relied on exclamation points throughout his judgment, not precedent. >> reporter: inside the beltway there is some difference of opinion about the value of edward snowden's disclosures but bipartisan agreement that his motives are still suspicious. >> you know, he has kindled an important public debate, but frankly i think it came from a mixture of motivations on his part. >> he stole american classified documents that, because of their release, jeopardizes our troops in the field in places like afghanistan. >> reporter: this week "the washington post" reported that snowden said his mission is accomplished. now his lawyer says he's ready to come home if laws are changed to preserve his freedom. >> mr. snowden's disclosures have been profoundly valuable to the cou

. >> from both the recommendations from the review group and the opinion of judge leon, a few days earlier, is that both recognized that all of this scooping up data really did not thwart any terrorist attack, because if you are looking for a needle in a hay stack, why do you want to make the hay stack bigger? i don't think it's helped, and i don't think any of these two bodies that have looked a this helped, i think it violated the rights of a number of innocent people, who were there was no probable cause or even a reasonable suspicion that hay had done anything wrong. so the scooping up that has been going on over the last 12 years has been a huge problem. just to build in another level. >> potentially, if you look at the ombudsman model that could be seen as one of the ways to approach this kind of issue. the trouble is that the ombudsman is usually a very open office, it is publicly managed and the information is unclassified for any kind of civil rights issue. in case you are talked about classified sessions in a closed court. how that advocate would function, and what they would be

in a 68-page ruling federal judge richard leon described the government surveillance program has almost orwellian, a dragnet, and what once would have been considered the stuff of science fiction. he even invoked the founding fathers. "i have little doubt the author of our constitution, james madison, would be aghast." under the nsa program, the government collects and stores

i have got to tell you richard leon is a fine judge and terrific person. but even great judges and terrific people occasionally make mistakes and he made a mistake. bill: he stayed the order giving the government the chance to appeal. >> that's the responsible thing for a judge to do and that's what he did. bill: he said i cannot imagine a more indiscriminate and arbitrary collection of data or every american citizen without prior judicious approval. such a program infringes on that degree of privacy of the founder enshrined in the fourth amendment. >> i think the mistake that he made was in analyzing what the government could do fit abused the program rather than what the government in fact does when it uses the program. bill: edward snowden is listening to a decision like this. you said in june the damage that snowden did was real. you said every time we tell terrorists we can detect them we encourage them to find other wayways to avoid detection. >> that remains true today. the problem is the judge analyzed what the government could do if it wanted to a

, james madison, would be aghast at what judge leon said amounts to an unreasonable search. the judge granted a preliminary injunction to stop the government from collecting the records of the two men who brought the challenge, but then he put that order on hold in the face of a likely appeal. senior correspondent john miller is former deputy director of national intelligence and, john, what is the n.s.a.'s argument for collecting this information? >> reporter: well, scott, this is all about collecting the massive database of phone numbers dialed by americans. now, the n.s.a. is legally barred from spying on americans, but the agency is supposed to gather foreign intelligence that will help prevent another terrorist attack on u.s. soil. now, since 2006 whenever the n.s.a. has learned of a phone number being used by a terrorist group overseas one of the first things they want to know is, is that suspect talking to anyone in the united states. to answer that question, the n.s.a. obtained a blanket order from the foreign intelligence surveillance court. it allows the agency to

well peter you know i'm mindful of what the judge said judge richard leon quote i cannot imagine a more indiscriminate and invasion in this systematic and high tech collection effort against americans without judicial approval well you know that's pretty clear you know that's sort of an opinion but i think it's also a decision his party stayed the decision but it was very very clear to him and what he did he did his homework like nobody else has done and he went through those three f.b.i. cases the ones they advertise this where this kind of collection was was useful and he found them all to be bogus all bogus and so having done his homework he made this ruling now you know with respect to snowden coming home well you know anybody who knows anything about what's happened to recent whistleblowers knows that this was never an option for us to host node and thomas drake of the n.s.a. who suffered for years of of pressure commission and persecution at the hand of eight just department of justice lawyers after which the judge in maryland said look you justice apart and lawyers don't ever eve

judge leon is wrong. the reason the american people feel the way they do is because the issue has been misrepresented. as far as telling what's benton and not been done, telling the enemy what you know ... the courts monitor it and we monitor it and there is not one example or one instance of one american outside the nsa having their rights violated. martha: we'll continue this discussion when your voice is better. congressman peter king, tharks thanks -- thanks for being with us. bill: man's best friend to the rescue. a blind man says his dog saved his life when he fell on the subway tracks. an amazing survival story that will warm your heart. martha: has the president lost his mojo? that was one big question in an exchange been ed henry and jay carney that's getting a lot of attention. >> does he have the clout to move the public and move the public on these issuers when his approval ratings continue to sink? you stand behindhat you say. around here you don't make excuses. you make commitments. and when

monday's ruling by judge leon who was appointed by george w. bush, is the first to call the telephone program unconstitutional. 15 other judges on a special court to review classified programs have upheld it on 35 different occasions. >> this is the beginning of a conversation but it's not the end of the conversation. >> reporter: orrin cur is a law professor at george washington university. he says the decision will likely be reversed on appeal. >> it's more likely than not it will be joef turned. it's an outlier relative to other decisions on this issue. >> this program will continue while this is appealed. remember, in the meantime this program is also being reviewed by the obama administration and it is expected to decide in the next month or so whether to continue it in its current form regardless of what the court's rule or whether it needs some limits. >> jan thank you. john miller is former deputy director of national intelligence. good morning. >> good morning. >> you know the nsa and did a "60 minutes" piece about them. how will they r

just who is judge richard leon, the man behind the ruling? republican first nominated by george w. bush in 2001, confirmed later in 2002. he's best known for rulings in cases involving guantanamo bay detainees, backing the administration saying foreign prisoners had no way to challenge in court. he ruled against the bush white house when he decided that five prisoners had been illegally held at guantanamo bay for nearly seven years. >> the n.s.a. likely to abhot at thattic today when the president meets with top tech executives from apple, google, yahoo, twitter and several other big companies, discussing the recent efforts to rare healthcare.gov. it has been two months since the n.s.a. information that they were tapping the phone calls of angela merkel from germany. germans want spying to stop altogether across the country. the u.s. is reversing to extend the no spying guarantee beyond the chance lower, saying they don't want to create a precedent with other countries. >> merkel sworn in this morning for a third term at germany's chancellor.

district judge leon stayed his opinion in order to give u.s. government time to appeal. s a rebuke to the administration and vindication for snowden and his supporters. if a judge ruled nsa activities are unconstitutional, they argue, snowden should be afforded whistleblower status. among revelations, snowden used to wear a parody, note this one with the eagle on its head clutching cables. around the organization top secret hawaii facility while extracting 1.7 million classified documents from the world's premier security agency. an unnamed source described snowden as a genius among geniuses while nsa itself said he managed to gain entrance to the organization while ironically stealing answers to the test. snowden's introduction introduction to the world revealed in a hong kong hotel room has stirred both sympathy and outrage. >> shortly after the invasion of iraq i believe in the nobility of our intentions. over time, over the length of my career, as i watched the news and was increasingly exposed to true information that had not been propagandaized, we were involved in

if they want to take a look at what judge leon says in the decision, i think the obama administrationhis program. remember, president obama is not an idea log, he is a pragmatist. he could limit the program so there is as minimal as possible invasion into our privacy rights. if they could make the case that this is effective at getting out terrorism, the courts will find this well within the fourth amendment boundaries. >> thanks, julian. >> thank you, lawrence. >> chris hayes is up next. >>> boehner quits the clown car. let's play "hardball." ♪ >>> good evening. i'm chris matthews back in washington. let me start with this. the difference between being a child and being a grownup. it's a difference of job description. that wonderful guy who created peanuts. here's the deal. if you're a kid you get to sit in the back seat and fight. we've all heard it. and believe me, we've all done it. she's sitting on my side. she just touched me. he just touched me. i'm hungry. i'm car sick.

that's pretty significant and i think with these recommendations with the one two three punch of judge leon followed by the tech giant stretching down the white house for the snooping they've been doing followed by these forty six recommendations that snowden people are seeing that he told the truth and he revealed programs that were in fact illegal and he should be the one going to jail for that sure now earlier today i spoke with cass sunstein he's one of the people that was on that review panel that suggested these recommendations despite having what he calls quote complete access to complete this review i asked him if there are any surprises and i want you to listen to what he had to say. we didn't discover any shocking issues what do you think about that no shocking practice as i don't know why you said that because certainly if you read the report of which he is an author there are forty six not four not ten twenty thirty or forty but forty six lengthy recommendations about how to reform these programs including terminating killing off the most central book collection of all phone cal

. >> but why did leon then say that precedent -- because he's a lower court judge, why did he say that supreme court precedent doesn't apply right now? >> he said technology has changed so much that the case no longer pertains. smith versus maryland wasn't about how or how much meta data the government collects. whether it's the local police or the nsa. it's simply the fact that your meta data is not yours. it belongs to the third party. >> i think someone should file a lawsuit against amazon and american express on exactly the same basis. every day of the week, we all convey enormous amounts of privacy to these web retailers and nobody sees to complain about that. in fact, they're much more intrucive -- >> i guess the argument would be made, well, that's not the government, they don't have police powers. amazon and american express don't have police powers. >> the issue is it's not just the government doing it, people are worried about what will be done with this information. i think your information is obviously given the story of target stores is more at risk in the private sector t

if they want to take a look at what judge leon says in the decision, i think the obama administrationhis program. remember, president obama is not an idea log, he is a pragmatist. he could limit the program so there is as minimal as possible invasion into our privacy rights. if they could make the case that this is make it the case, of course we'll find this well within the fourth amendment boundaries. >> that's tonight's last word. >> thank you, lawrence. >> chris hayes is up next. >>> good evening from new york. i'm chris hayes. and even as the latest polling finds new jersey governor chris christie leading not only the republican presidential field but also a theoretical matchup against hillary clinton, christie finds himself right in the middle of the biggest political scandal of his career. just wait until the voters of iowa hear about this one. >> tonight i stand here as your

. >> judge leon says there is an -- an utter lack of evidence that a terrorist attack has ever been prevented. this ruling is a victory for fugitive nsa hacker and word snowden. -- edward snowden. are questions tonight whether the judge's decision could lead to amnesty for snowden. legal experts say it may be tough to prostate someone -- prosecute someone seen as a risk. new information on the case against the fire chief of staff. a federal judge ruled he can be released from jail and combined -- and confined in his parents home in maryland. he is not allowed to have any kind of access to the internet. he is charged with -- with presented -- possession and attempted dissolution of shopping artery -- distribution of child pornography. the largest jurisdiction and officials will be more time. prior to the recount, the democrat led the republican by just 155 votes. those numbers change as a result today's efforts. >> we have an additional 92 votes for the senator and an additional 183 votes for senator herring. that is a net increase for senator herring of 91 votes. >> election of it -- official

earlier judge leon ruled the opposite way in a suit brought against verizon, writing: >> last week the white house issued a report commissioned in the wake of the edward snowden leaks in which it was suggested changes may be in the offing in the way data is collected and stored. two federal judges coming up with conditions, many think the issue of n.s.a. spying is headed towards the supreme court in washington. >> at least three other lawsuits against the n.s.a. are pending in other federal courts. >> four u.s. military personnel held in libya has been released. the state department ..forensic ramifications that are very big. people are picking up the pieces. this was a big explosion in size and in the message it sent. >> a daring attack in the heart of beirut's downtown area. it killed former minister mohamad chatah. his body guard and four others were killed. mohamad chatah was a close aide and advisor to former prime minister saad al-hariri. and a leading figure of saad al-hariri's future movement, and the coalition. the explosion took place a short distance from the residence of sa

judge leon decision will do little or nothing to change the situation. and there was more than a hint therony in saying that government has always by noncitizens and always will. it takes roughly 6000 800 euros the800 euros to keep average person pounding the pavement for just one day. this was to visualize the financial side to the protest across the country. the white house has posted this photo of barack obama holding a sign reading "nobody should go broke just because they get sick peer co--- because they get sick." opponents of obamacare have seized the opportunity to decide the reform and mostly 12/19/13 12/19/13 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] >> from pacifica, this is democracy now! nsa and the intelligence community in general is focused on getting intelligence wherever it can, by any means possible. >> and what has been called a rebuke to the national security agency and vindication for edward snowden, a white house- appointed panel urges sweeping changes at the nsa