CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We're following breaking news right now. A U.S. appeals court has ruled that the NSA's massive collection of phone records is illegal. The ruling determining the -- the ruling determines that it exceeds the scope of what Congress authorized. I want to bring in our senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta to help explain this for us. Good morning.</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. That's right. This is the program that essentially allows the NSA to sweep up all of this data from people's phone calls. Not the content of those phone calls, but when calls are made, who those calls are made to. The NSA has been collecting this data for years. And the program was exposed by the NSA leaker Edward Snowden. Well, court of appeals up in New York looked at this program and found it to be illegal, that it exceeds the scope of the Patriot Act and there's a pretty damming section of this ruling from the court of appeals up in New York saying that it exceeds the scope of what Congress has authorized. Now, this court ruling did not say whether or not the program was constitutional but it did basically find it to be illegal. Carol, we should point out, though, that not only does the White House sort of agree with all this, but members of Congress agree with this and they are trying to reform the NSA's collection of this bulk metadata as it's called. There's a bill proceeding up on Capitol Hill at this point that the White House would like to see signed into law. So all of this is moving forward it appears on a legislative front. But the court has weighed in. And for all of those folks out there who were upset with Edward Snowden, all of his exposures of what's happening at the NSA, this is one particular program that he exposed that a federal court found to be illegal -- Carol.</s>COSTELLO: All right. Jim Acosta reporting live at the White House -- Thank you. I'll be right back.
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