A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by Wikimedia and other groups challenging one of the U.S. National Security Agency's mass surveillance programs, the Baltimore Sun reported.

The newspaper said Judge T.S. Ellis III on Friday dismissed the suit filed in March over what is often called "upstream" collection because it happens along the backbone of the Internet and away from individual users.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Maryland, where the spy agency is based, said the NSA is violating U.S. constitutional protections and the law by tapping into high-capacity cables, switches and routers that move Internet traffic through the United States.