The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issues an opinion in ACLU v. Clapper. The court holds that the NSA’s telephone records program went far beyond what Congress authorized when it passed Section 215 of the Patriot Act in 2001. Notably, the court rejects the government's argument that collecting call records isn't a problem because they are "just metadata", noting how revealing this data can be. Although the court holds that it need not reach the ACLU’s constitutional claims because of its statutory holding, it also notes that the claims presented are very serious.