While serving as a Navy reservist and law student in the 1970s, James Bamford learned of an NSA program involving allegedly illegal eavesdropping on U.S. citizens. He testified in a closed hearing before the Senate Church Committee, whose investigation produced sweeping intelligence reforms. Bamford later reported that the Justice Department began a secret criminal investigation in 1976 into widespread illegal domestic eavesdropping by the NSA. His account is based on his testimony, released government records, and subsequent investigative reporting.
After The New York Times reported in December 2005 that the NSA had conducted warrantless domestic surveillance after the September 11 attacks, Bamford joined the American Civil Liberties Union’s lawsuit challenging the program. On August 17, 2006, U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor ruled in ACLU v. NSA that the surveillance was unconstitutional and illegal and ordered it halted, while staying the order during appeal. On July 6, 2007, the Sixth Circuit reversed the decision because the plaintiffs could not prove they had personally been monitored and therefore lacked standing. The ruling left the legality question unresolved while reinforcing the central obstacle to judicial review of secret surveillance.
