The U.S. National Security Agency’s mass collection of telephone records within the country is an unprecedented violation of privacy by the government, a lawyer challenging the surveillance program argued Tuesday.

A U.S. appeals court should uphold a lower court’s preliminary injunction against the phone records program as a way to stop U.S. residents from rising up against the government, conservative activist and lawyer Larry Klayman argued.

U.S. residents may resort to mass protests if judges don’t rule against the program, Klayman said. “This is the most outrageous abuse of power in our history,” he told the U.S Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. “The American people look to you to protect them from a tyranny of the government.”

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