Judge Upholds N.S.A.’s Bulk Collection of Data on Calls

In just 11 days, the two judges and the presidential panel reached the opposite of consensus on every significant question before them, including the intelligence value of the program, the privacy interests at stake and how the Constitution figures in the analysis.

The latest decision, from Judge William H. Pauley III in New York, could not have been more different from one issued on Dec. 16 by Judge Richard J. Leon in Washington, who ruled that the program was “almost Orwellian” and probably unconstitutional.

The decision on Friday “is the exact opposite of Judge Leon’s in every way, substantively and rhetorically,” said Orin S. Kerr, a law professor at George Washington University. “It’s matter and antimatter.”

The case in New York was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, which said it would appeal.

“We are extremely disappointed with this decision, which misinterprets the relevant statutes, understates the privacy implications of the government’s surveillance and misapplies a narrow and outdated precedent to read away core constitutional protections,” said Jameel Jaffer, a lawyer with the group.

A spokesman for the Justice Department said, “We are pleased the court found the N.S.A.’s bulk telephony metadata collection program to be lawful.”

The next stops for the parallel cases are the appeals courts in New York and Washington. Should the split endure, the Supreme Court is likely to step in.

In the meantime, the decisions, along with recommendations issued on Dec. 18 by the presidential review group, illustrate the absence of agreement about the effectiveness and legality of the program, which, Judge Pauley said, “vacuums up information about virtually every telephone call to, from or within the United States.” That information is “metadata” — the phone numbers involved, when calls were made and how long they lasted.

The two judges had starkly differing understandings on how valuable that program is.

Judge Pauley, whose courtroom is just blocks from where the World Trade Center towers stood, endorsed arguments made in recent months by senior government officials — including the former F.B.I. director Robert S. Mueller III — that the program might have caught the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers had it been in place before the attacks.

Judge Pauley began his opinion with an anecdote. In the months before Sept. 11, he said, the N.S.A. intercepted seven calls made to a Qaeda safe house in Yemen from the United States. They were from Khalid al-Mihdhar, who was living in San Diego and would become one of the hijackers.

But the security agency “could not capture al-Mihdhar’s telephone number,” the judge wrote, and “N.S.A. analysts concluded mistakenly that al-Mihdhar was overseas and not in the United States.”

“Telephony metadata would have furnished the missing information and might have permitted the N.S.A. to notify the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the fact that al-Mihdhar was calling the Yemeni safe house from inside the United States,” Judge Pauley wrote.

Judge Leon, in Washington, took the opposite view, saying the government had failed to make the case that the program is needed to protect the nation. “The government does not cite a single instance in which analysis of the N.S.A.’s bulk metadata collection actually stopped an imminent attack, or otherwise aided the government in achieving any objective that was time-sensitive in nature,” he wrote.

The presidential review group took a middle ground, though it seemed to lean toward Judge Leon’s position. It said the security agency “believes that on at least a few occasions” the program “has contributed to its efforts to prevent possible terrorist attacks, either in the United States or somewhere else in the world.” But it added that its own review suggested that the program “was not essential to preventing attacks,” and that less intrusive measures would work.

The group recommended that bulk storage of telephone records by the government be halted in favor of “a system in which such metadata is held instead either by private providers or by a private third party.” Access to the data, it said, should require a court order.

The two judges did not limit their disagreements to how well the program worked. They also drew different conclusions about its constitutionality.

Detroit’s Finances Cast a Shadow Over a Prized Car Collection

Contributing to the municipal anxiety is the possibility that some of the city’s cultural treasures could be sold off, including masterpieces in the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Belle Isle park in the Detroit River.

But there is another Detroit family jewel in question that is largely unknown outside the automobile world and to some people even more treasured — a collection of 62 lovingly maintained classic cars donated to the city since the 1950s by civic-minded families seeking to preserve the Motor in Motor City.

Most of the cars are stored under protective plastic bubbles in a World War II-era riverfront warehouse on the grounds of Fort Wayne, while others are on display at the Detroit Historical Museum or on loan to exhibits around the country.

Just as art patrons are resisting selling van Goghs and Matisses to satisfy Detroit’s debt, car lovers are pushing back at the possibility of losing what they regard as the city’s historic industrial heart and soul — including a Cadillac Osceola that dates to 1905, and a vintage Ford Mustang worth an estimated $2 million.

“The cars stand for us, the expression of the thousands of people working hard to produce the birthright of America,” said Jerry Herron, a Detroit historian and dean of the Irvin D. Reid Honors College at Wayne State University. “It would be a sad day for Detroit and for America.”

If Detroit winds up in bankruptcy court — and no one knows if that will happen, or exactly what would follow — city assets of all sorts could be placed on the block to satisfy creditors, who will look to recoup some of their money lost on the city’s bonds and other long-term debt.

In a Chapter 9 bankruptcy — which is highly unusual, especially for a big city — it would be up to a judge, if asked, to decide on a request to sell assets like the art or cars. Even if a judge is so inclined, some creditors might be loath to appear too hard-nosed by going after municipal treasures.

“They’re going to want to take everything they can out of the city’s assets, but they won’t want to take the heart out of the body,” said James V. McTevia, a corporate turnaround expert who runs McTevia & Associates in Bingham Farms, Mich.

Last Friday, the city’s emergency manager, Kevyn D. Orr, started negotiations with creditors, asking them to accept pennies on the dollar for the $15 billion to $17 billion they are owed. Short of bankruptcy, he says, he has no plans to sell off assets.

“Selling an asset creates a one-time revenue source, which has little lasting impact on sustaining city services for years to come,” said Bill Nowling, a spokesman for Mr. Orr. Last week, Michigan’s attorney general, Bill Schuette, wrote in an opinion that at least the artwork could not be sold.

Bob Sadler, director of sales and marketing for the Detroit Historical Society, which manages the prized auto collection, said museum officials had yet to meet with Mr. Orr and his staff.

From the perspective of Adam Lovell, the curator of the historical society’s museum, the cars’ real value lies in what they represent for Detroit. Each vehicle in the collection has a story that, taken together, “tell little snippets, tiny microstories” of Detroit’s history.

The stories feature industry titans making groundbreaking cars, and workers fighting to prove their grit to the world — and to their companies.

It is an eclectic collection, from the innovative 1934 Chrysler Airflow four-door sedan to the 1960 Chevrolet Corvair — later declared by Ralph Nader to be “unsafe at any speed.” Even an AMC Pacer, one of the oddest cars from the 1970s, sits in the 50,000-square-foot warehouse, which smells like a musty basement and pulses with the whir of the fans that keep the bubbles inflated 24 hours a day.

There is also the 1919 Dodge coupe belonging to John Francis Dodge, with gold initials JFD imprinted on the rear door and an odometer that reads 4,126. A 1902 Oldsmobile runabout is considered the first mass-produced automobile in the world.

A 1987 Cadillac stretch limousine was custom-made by workers in a failing bid to persuade General Motors to keep open the Fleetwood plant where it was made.

Mr. Lovell counts among his favorites a 1924 two-door Hupmobile with a four-cylinder engine, manufactured by the long-defunct Hupp Motor Car Company.

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For the past three years, the First Judicial District has stepped up its effort to collect on forfeited bails and other outstanding debts with the "view," as Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge John W. Herron put it in 2012, "that it's necessary to do so in order to underscore the ramifications of failing to appear for court hearings."