united states federal judge blocks controversial data mining program citing Fourth Amendment violations
A United States federal judge in San Francisco has issued an emergency injunction against a sweeping government surveillance program that collected metadata from millions of American citizens without warrants. The ruling, handed down late Wednesday, declares the program unconstitutional after whistleblower documents revealed the agency was storing biometric data—including facial recognition scans and voice samples—from social media platforms. The judge called it a "modern-day digital dragnet," ordering all collected data to be destroyed within 30 days. While the Department of Justice has vowed to appeal, civil liberties groups are celebrating the decision as a major win for privacy rights. However, social media is flooded with viral claims that the judge was bribed by Big Tech donors, a claim fact-checkers have debunked as false due to zero evidence linking the ruling to outside influence.