WASHINGTON—Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) Co-Chairs Reps. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-AZ) and Keith Ellison (D-MN) released the following statement today after the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the bulk collection of phone records by the National Security Agency (NSA) violates federal law.

“The Second Circuit’s ruling today is welcome news to Americans who want their civil liberties protected. Mass collection of phone records violates our right to privacy and makes for bad law enforcement. The Congressional Progressive Caucus called for the end of the NSA’s bulk telephone data collection program in 2013 when its existence became public.

“Our resources are too important to waste on programs that don’t make American families any safer and come at the expense of the freedoms we swear to protect. We applaud the court’s ruling that the NSA’s systematic collection of data on the private lives of Americans is unjustified and illegal.”