Litigation over global surveillance has occurred in multiple jurisdictions since the global surveillance disclosures of 2013. Background Ongoing news reports in the international media have revealed operational details about the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) and its international partners' global surveillance of foreign nationals and U.S. citizens. The reports emanate from a cache of top secret documents leaked by ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden. In June 2013, the first of Snowden's documents were published simultaneously by The Washington Post and The Guardian, attracting considerable public attention. North America Hepting v. AT&T Hepting v. AT&T is a US class action lawsuit filed in January 2006 by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) against the telecommunications company AT&T, in which the EFF alleges that AT&T permitted and assisted the National Security Agency (NSA) in unlawfully monitoring the communications of the United States, including AT&T customers, businesses and third parties whose communications were routed through AT&T's network, as well as voice over IP telephone calls routed via the Internet. The case is separate from, but related to, the NSA warrantless surveillance controversy, in which the federal government agency bypassed the courts to monitor U.S. phone calls without warrants. Hepting v. AT&T does not include the federal government as a party. Jewel v. NSA Jewel v. National Security Agency is a United States class action lawsuit filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) against the National Security Agency (NSA) and several high-ranking officials of the administration for 43rd U.S. president George W. Bush, charging an "illegal and unconstitutional program of dragnet communications surveillance". Clapper v. Amnesty International Clapper v. Amnesty International, , was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that Amnesty International USA and others lacked standing to challenge 50 U. S. C. §1881a of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act as amended by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 Amendments Act of 2008. Klayman v. Obama The plaintiffs, subscribers of Verizon Wireless, brought suit against the NSA, the United States Department of Justice, President Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder, General Keith Alexander, and Verizon Communication. The plaintiffs allege that the government is conducting a "secret and illegal government scheme to intercept vast quantities of domestic telephonic communications". On December 16, 2013, United States District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Richard J. Leon ruled that bulk collection of American telephone metadata likely violates the Constitution of the United States.