The National Security Agency programme that collects information on the phone calls of tens of millions of Americans suffered its most significant legal setback when it was ruled illegal by a federal appeals court on Thursday.周四，美国国家安全局(NSA)通过数以千万计美国人的电话搜集信息的计划遭遇仅次于法律挫折，原因是当日一家联邦裁决法庭裁决该计划非法。The three-judge panel ruled that the programme exposed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden was not permitted by the Patriot Act, the sweeping counterterror bill passed by Congress in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.这一由三名法官构成的小组裁决，《爱国者法案》(Patriot Act)并不许可这一由NSA前合同工爱德华斯诺登(Edward Snowden)曝光的计划。

《爱国者法案》是911恐怖袭击之后，美国国会通过的一项全面缉毒议案。The ruling comes at a politically sensitive moment for the NSA as Congress is beginning to debate whether to renew the section of the Patriot Act, which had been used to justify the bulk collection programme.对于NSA来说，这一判决的实施正值一个政治敏感时期，因为国会急忙开始就否改版《爱国者法案》的一个章节积极开展辩论，而该章节仍然被用来为大规模信息搜集计划获取法律依据。

Although intelligence officials have said the data are critical for counter-terrorism missions, there is a strong push in Congress to either abolish the programme or place substantial limits on it.虽然情报机构的官员曾回应这些数据对缉毒任务至关重要，但是美国国会仍然在强势推展对此类计划的改革，他们拒绝要么废止该计划，要么对其加以大量容许。The judges from the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit did not address the issue of whether the data collection programme violated the constitution and its prohibition against “unreasonable seizures and searches”.来自美国联邦上诉法院第二巡回演唱审判庭的法官未提及，这一数据搜集计划否违背了宪法及宪法对“公然搜查和扣留”的禁令。However, in a 97-page ruling, they said that the section of the Patriot Act, which allows law enforcement to collect business records that are considered relevant to counterterror investigations, could not be used to allow such broad sweeps of call data.不过，在长达97页的起诉书中，法官们回应《爱国者法案》的一章无法用来作为批准后这类全面电话数据搜集计划的法律依据。

该章节容许执法人员机构搜集被视作与缉毒调查密切相关的商业记录。“The statutes to which the government points have never been interpreted to authorise anything approaching the breadth of the sweeping surveillance at issue here,” wrote Judge Gerard Lynch wrote for the panel. “The sheer volume of information sought is staggering.”替该法官小组撰写的杰勒德林奇法官(Judge Gerard Lynch)写到：“在此处牵涉到的问题上，全面监控计划涵括的范围过于大，政府所援引法规的任何司法解释未曾批准后如此大范围的监控。所收集信息的规模之大是难以置信的。”The ruling added: “Such expansive development of government repositories of formerly private records would be an unprecedented contraction of the privacy expectations of all Americans.”该裁决书补足说道：“政府对原本的私人记录的内容做到如此大幅的扩展存储，不会史无前例地传输所有美国人对个人隐私的预期。

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