In a 5-4 ruling on Tuesday, the justices said the plaintiffs - which include Amnesty International USA and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) - had no legal standing to bring the case because they could not prove that they personally suffered from the government program.
The program at issue is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which was expanded in 2008 to let US intelligence agencies monitor international phone calls and emails in hopes of thwarting potential terrorist plots.
The justices did not address whether the program is constitutional, but rather whether the plaintiffs could present their constitutional challenge.
The decision was split along ideological lines, with the conservative majority ruling in favour and the four moderate judges voting against.
In the case, Clapper v Amnesty International, the administration of President Barack Obama asked the top US court to throw out the suit.
Government lawyers argued on behalf of James Clapper, director of national intelligence, and maintained that because the surveillance targets foreigners, the plaintiffs had no standing to sue.
The plaintiffs, which also included lawyers representing prisoners in Guantanamo and media organisations, maintained they could sue because their own private communications could also be intercepted in the electronic monitoring.
"We hold that respondents lack ... standing because they cannot demonstrate that the future injury they purportedly fear is certainly impending," read the majority ruling, written by Judge Samuel Alito.
"It is highly speculative whether the government will imminently target communications to which respondents are parties," Alito wrote.
An appeals court had earlier ruled in favour of the plaintiffs, stating that their fear of being monitored was not "paranoid or unreasonable".
Justice Stephen Breyer, writing the dissenting opinion, said there is "a very high likelihood" that the government will intercept "at least some of the communications, which include discussions with family members of those detained at Guantanamo, friends and acquaintances of those persons, and investigators, experts and others".
ninemsn.com.au 27 Feb 2013
In line with current new world order policies, no one can be hidden from authorities or corporations, everyone must be transparent.
Courts are government instruments that have a policy to work against the masses to rule in favour of the corporatocracy.
The always plausible excuse of 'terrorism' is given in order to 'protect' the general populous, but criminal organisations still flourish .
Another farce in the face of the gentiles (cattle).
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