Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/563603
BySamHananel The Associated Press WASHINGTON A fed- eral appeals court on Fri- day ruled in favor of the Obama administration in a dispute over the National Security Agency's bulk col- lection of telephone data on hundreds of millions of Americans. The U.S. Court of Ap- peals for the District of Columbia Circuit reversed a lower court ruling that said the program likely vi- olates the Constitution's ban on unreasonable searches. The ruling means the government can continue collecting the data for the next few months, although the program is set to ex- pire at the end of Novem- ber under legislation that Congress passed earlier this summer to replace it. The appeals court sent the case back for a judge to determine whether the government must divulge more details about the pro- gram that would enable the case to go forward. The ruling is the lat- est in a succession of de- cisions in federal courts in Washington and New York that at various points threatened the constitutionality of the NSA's surveillance pro- gram, but have so far up- held the amassing of re- cords from U.S. domestic phone customers. The appeals court ruled that challengers to the program have not shown "a substantial likelihood" that they would win their case on the merits. Judge Janice Rogers Brown said it was possi- ble the government would refuse to provide informa- tion about the secret pro- gram that could help the challengers pursue their case. In a separate opin- ion, Judge Stephen Wil- liams said the challengers would need to show they actually were targeted by the surveillance program. Judge David Sentelle dissented in part, saying he would have thrown the case out entirely be- cause the plaintiffs of- fered no proof they were ever harmed. All three judges were appointees of Republican presidents. The lawsuit was brought by Larry Klayman, a con- servative lawyer, and Charles Strange, the fa- ther of a cryptologist tech- nician who was killed in Afghanistan when his he- licopter was shot down in 2011. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled in 2013 that the collection was likely unconstitutional. An appeals court in New York ruled in May that the USA Patriot Act could not be interpreted to allow the NSA's bulk collection of phone sur- veillance. Neither of the decisions against the gov- ernment interrupted the collection of electronic re- cords while the legal dis- putes played out. But the Federal Intelli- gence Surveillance Court, a secret judicial body that oversees the surveillance program, ruled in June that the New York court was wrong. In June, Congress ap- proved a measure that would phase out the pro- gram over the next six months and replace it with one that keeps the records with phone companies, but allows the government to search them with a war- rant. Klayman, an activist who has filed hundreds of lawsuits against the fed- eral government, said he is considering an appeal to the Supreme Court. SURVEILLANCE Appeals court reverses ruling that found NSA data program illegal By Cain Burdeau and Jeff Amy The Associated Press NEW ORLEANS Former President George W. Bush enjoyed sympathetic crowds in New Orleans and Mis- sissippi on Friday as he re- turned to the region where Hurricane Katrina sank his popularity 10 years ago. Bush avoided the Lower 9th Ward and other parts of New Orleans that have yet to recover from the devastating storm. He did not tour the federally managed levees whose failures flooded 80 percent of the city. Instead, he visited a charter school rebuilt with support from former first lady Laura Bush's founda- tion, then flew to Gulfport, Mississippi, honoring police and firefighters who saved lives after Katrina's tower- ing storm surge swamped the coast. "The 10th anniversary is a good time to honor cour- age and resolve," Bush said in Gulfport. "It's also a good time to remember we live in a compassionate na- tion." Bush took no questions at either event, and made no mention of his admin- istration's lackluster initial response to Katrina, which historians consider a low point for his presidency. "Isn't it amazing? The storm nearly destroyed New Orleans and yet, now, New Orleans is the beacon for school reform," Bush said at the city's oldest public school, which was badly flooded and almost aban- doned before it reopened a year later as Warren Easton Charter High School. The comeback from Ka- trina has been uneven. While Mississippi's Gulf Coast recovered all its pop- ulation and then some, Bush and his team have been so deeply resented in New Orleans that Carnival goers displayed them in ef- figy at annual Mardi Gras parades. For days after the storm, bodies decomposed in the streets and thousands of people begged to be rescued from their rooftops in New Orleans. The storm set off a "con- fluence of blunders," and Bush's approval ratings never recovered, said Doug- las Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice University who wrote "The Great Del- uge," a detailed account of the first days after Katrina. Bush didn't help his im- age by initially flying over the flooded city in Air Force One without touch- ing down, then saying "Heckuva job, Brownie" to praise his ill-prepared Fed- eral Emergency Manage- ment Agency director, Mi- chael Brown, who resigned shortly thereafter. Mississippi Gov. Phil Bry- ant said Bush should not be blamed for the disaster that ultimately killed more than 1,830 people. "I think he certainly did a tremendous amount of good. It was just a tremendous storm. No one was prepared," Bryant said. Bush's administration eventually spent $140 bil- lion on the recovery, but he took a hands-off approach as president. He supported reforming schools and re- placing housing projects with public-private devel- opments, but said rebuild- ing was best left to locals. 10 YEARS LATER George W. Bush visits Katrina disaster zone GERALDHERBERT—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Former President George W. Bush greets Warren Easton Charter High School marching band member Jaymerson George during a visit to the school in New Orleans on Friday. By Ezequiel Abiu Lopez and Carlisle Jno Baptiste The Associated Press SANTO DOMINGO, DOMINI- CAN REPUBLIC Tropical Storm Erika began to lose steam Friday as it skirted along the southern coast of the Dominican Republic, but it left behind a trail of destruction that included at least a dozen people killed on the small eastern Carib- bean island of Dominica, authorities said. Heavy winds from the storm toppled trees and power lines in the Domin- ican Republic. The U.S. National Hurricane Cen- ter in Miami said the sys- tem was expected to move north across the island of Hispaniola where, the high mountains would weaken it to a tropical depression on Saturday and possibly cause it to dissipate en- tirely. There's a chance it could regain some strength off northern Cuba and people in Florida should still keep an eye on it and brace for heavy rain, said John Ca- gialosi, a hurricane spe- cialist at the center. "This is a potentially heavy rain event for a large part of the state," he said. Erika brought heavy rain as it passed through the Ca- ribbean, setting off floods and mudslides in Domi- nica that are now blamed for at least a dozen deaths, the government said. CARIBBEAN Tropical Storm Erika to lose steam; death toll rising | NEWS | REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 2015 4 B