Reversal in the NSA surveillance case

The Sixth Circuit has reversed the decision in which District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor found the NSA intercept program unlawful. I haven’t had time to read the opinions (three judges, three opinions for a total of 65 pages). However, it appears that, by a 2-1 majority, the court concluded that plaintiffs lack standing to challenge the program in federal court.
UPDATE: The majority opinion was written by Judge Alice Batchelder, who was said to be a candidate for the Supreme Court back in 2005. Judge Julia Smith Gibbons concurred with the holding, but declined to get into all of the standing issues covered by Judge Batchelder. For her, it was enough that the plaintiffs presented no evidence that they were personally subject to the intercept program. Judge Ronald Gilman thought the plaintiffs have standing to challenge the program, and that the trial judge correctly found it unlawful.
Judge Batchelder was appointed to the federal bench by Ronald Reagan and elevated to the court of appeals by the first President Bush. Judge Gibbons was also appointed to the federal bench by Reagan. The current President Bush nominated her for a place on the Sixth Circuit, and the Senate confirmed her unanimously in 2002 (not an easy time to sail to confirmation). Judge Gilman is a Clinton appointee.
Judge Taylor, the author of the horrendously-argued opinion reversed by the Sixth Circuit today, was appointed by President Carter.
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