DOJ Wants Court To Stay Leon's Ruling Until New Intelligence-Gathering Program Starts

The Justice Department asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to stay a ruling by U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, who last week ordered the NSA to stop collecting the call records of attorney J.J. Little and his law firm (see 1511090049). "Given that the government’s bulk collection of telephony metadata under Section 215 will terminate in less than two weeks, thereby mooting plaintiffs’ claims for injunctive relief and the injunction entered by the district court, this court should stay the district court’s injunction pending appeal, the Monday DOJ filing said. Little and his law firm were two of the five plaintiffs in Klayman v. Obama that are seeking to end the government's spying program, saying it's unconstitutional. The government will shift to a new program on Nov. 29 but wants to continue the current telephony metadata collection until then.