US judge says NSA spying on phone records unconstitutional

He issued a preliminary injunction against the NSA surveillance programme but suspended the order to allow for an appeal by the US justice department, thus enabling the programme to continue for now.

Leon expressed scepticism of the programme's value, saying that the government could not cite a single instance in which the data actually stopped an imminent terror attack.

“I have serious doubts about the efficacy of the metadata collection programme as a means of conducting time-sensitive investigations in cases involving imminent threats of terrorism,” he said.