The programme, exposed in a newspaper report last month, was launched after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. President George W. Bush has strongly defended it and said it will continue.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the most prominent U.S. civil rights group, and the Center for Constitutional Rights filed separate lawsuits earlier Tuesday charging the spying was illegal and that Bush had no power to authorize it.
In a strongly-worded response, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the suits were 'frivolous' and 'do nothing to help enhance civil liberties or protect the American people'.
The ACLU sued the U.S. government's National Security Agency, which reportedly eavesdropped on communications between U.S. residents and contacts abroad in what Bush says is an effort to track terrorist suspects.
The dispute is over whether U.S. law allows snooping on domestic residents without court approval - which the administration acknowledges it did not always seek under the NSA programme.
'President Bush may believe he can authorize spying on Americans without judicial or Congressional approval, but this programme is illegal and we intend to put a stop to it,' ACLU executive director Anthony Romero said in a statement.
He called the surveillance 'a chilling assertion of presidential power' not seen since the days of the late Richard Nixon, who resigned as president in 1974 over the Watergate scandal.
'President Bush's claim that he is not bound by the law is simply astounding,' said ACLU legal expert Ann Beeson. 'Our democratic system depends on the rule of law, and not even the president can issue illegal orders that violate constitutional principles.'
Former U.S. vice president Al Gore, who lost to Bush in the 2000 election, also accused Bush of breaking the law by authorizing the surveillance.
'A president who breaks the law is a threat to the very structure of our government,' Gore said in a speech Monday. He urged Congress to hold hearing and called for the appointment of special prosecutor to investigate the matter.
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