Federal Judge Rules That Challenges to NSA Can Proceed

Not allowing states secret defense to be invoked

(CN) - Two challenges to the NSA's wiretapping program will proceed after a federal judge ruled that the government cannot invoke the state secrets defense.

Carolyn Jewel and Virginia Shubert are the lead plaintiffs behind the federal complaints filed against the National Security Agency (NSA) six years ago in San Francisco.

They claim that the agency eavesdrops on millions of phone customers' calls under the.

Shubert says NSA employees "have admitted to listening to calls simply for entertainment purposes, and sharing these calls with their colleagues."

Both she and Jewel claim that the agency uses the Terrorist Surveillance Program, enacted after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, to eavesdrop on millions of phone calls in violation of the Fourth Amendment.