The Supreme Court has rejected a petition asking it to halt the National Security Agency’s collection of millions of phone records. The Electronic Privacy Information Center filed the motion earlier this year without going through the lower courts. It was the first legal effort to directly challenge the authority of FISA courts to authorize the collection of phone data under the PATRIOT Act. But on Monday, the Supreme Court refused to hear the case without comment. Two other cases challenging NSA surveillance are set to go before federal courts later this week.