District Court Judge Cancels Hearing on DEA Phone Record Spying

A U.S. District Court judge in Los Angeles vacated a hearing scheduled for Monday (see 1508130050) in Human Rights Watch's case against the Drug Enforcement Administration claiming the DEA illegally collected the group's international phone call records, a notice issued Thursday evening said. The DEA asked the court to dismiss the case because the data collection was stopped and the database holding the information has "been purged of the collected data," the agency's motion said. Judge Philip Gutierrez said in the notice that the DEA's motion to dismiss will be considered based on submitted pleadings and that no appearance by counsel is necessary.