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Judge rejects ACLU challenge, says NSA telephone data collection is legal (update)

We don't expect this back and forth to flame out any time soon, of course, but a US District judge in Manhattan certainly issued a blow to an American Civil Liberties Union challenge of the National Security Agency's massive telephone data collection. The judge acknowledged that the agency has, indeed, been "vacuum[ing] up information about virtually every telephone call to, from, or within the United States," but said he saw no evidence that it was being used for anything beyond attempting to foil terrorist plots, denying the ACLU's motion for preliminary injunction. The ACLU hasn't issued a statement on the matter yet, but we imagine it's not giving up the fight any time soon.

Update: You can now read the full ruling here in PDF form.