Judge to move forward with suit over NSA's bulk collection
By MICHAEL BIESECKER, Associated Press
Sep 2, 2015 12:45 PM CDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge says he plans to push ahead with a challenge to the National Security Agency's bulk collection of telephone data on hundreds of millions of Americans, even as the program is set to expire at the end of November.

U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon said Wednesday he has no intention of allowing the Obama administration to use legal maneuvering to "run out the clock" on a lawsuit filed by a conservative activist challenging the USA Patriot Act. Leon ruled in 2013 that the mass collection of phone records is likely unconstitutional.

Congress approved a measure in June that phases out the Patriot Act and replaces it with one in which phone companies retain the records and allow the government to search them with a warrant.