Oral arguments set for NSA case

COEUR d'ALENE - Oral arguments before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals are scheduled for Dec. 8 in a North Idaho nurse's legal challenge to the federal government's bulk collection of Americans' phone records.

Coeur d'Alene attorney Peter Smith will be arguing in Seattle in front of the three-judge panel, representing his wife, Anna Smith, a neonatal nurse and Verizon Wireless customer. Verizon was one of the companies ordered to disclose records to the National Security Agency.

The Smiths filed the lawsuit against President Barack Obama and several U.S. intelligence agencies after the government confirmed revelations that the NSA was collecting the data under the Patriot Act.

Peter Smith said Friday the collection and storage of the phone records violates the Fourth Amendment.

"The question comes down to: Should the government be able to get this information and keep it?" he said. "Or should it be left with the private companies?"

Once the government has all the data, that gives it power, he said. It comes down to the possession of the records, he said.

"We don't trust the government," he said.

U.S. District Court Judge Lynn Winmill dismissed Anna Smith's case. Winmill determined the legal precedent from the 1979 U.S. Supreme Court case Smith v. Maryland - about targeted phone surveillance - tied his hands.

"He followed the law as he understood it," Peter Smith said.

The Smiths appealed to the Ninth Circuit.

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Oral arguments set for NSA case