U.S. Government Asks Court to Dismiss Spying Lawsuit Against AT&T

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U.S. Government Asks Court to Dismiss Spying Lawsuit Against AT&T

8:00 am on April 30, 2006 | Category: Business, Telecom Services, Telephone, Law, Regulation, Editorials

The U.S. government has filed a request that a federal judge to dismiss a class-action lawsuit brought by civil liberties group, Electronic Frontier Foundation, against telecom provider, AT&T.

The suit alleges that AT&T unlawfully collaborated with the National Security Agency’s illegal surveillance program, which monitored the telephone and email communications of U.S. citizens. The federal government now wants the case dismissed, saying that it could reveal military and state secrets.

“The government intends to assert the military and state secrets privilege (that) permits the government to protect against the unauthorized disclosure in litigation of information that may harm national security interests,” said the government’s filing on this issue. “In addition to asserting the state secrets privilege, the U.S. also intends to file a motion to intervene for the purpose of seeking dismissal of this case.”

Such a request is quite simply laughable, and violates much of what the American Constitution stands for. The government initiated an illegal program to spy on its citizens, without court approval, hoping that nobody would find out. And now that their dirty little secret has been uncovered, they’re throwing their weight around to make the consequences go away.

The fact is the Electronic Frontier Foundation has plenty of evidence in the case, easily enough to win this class action suit against AT&T without anyone from the government even being involved. The only reason that the request to drop the case was even filed was to keep the issue out of the public eye, and prevent the courts from making a ruling against the NSA spying program itself.

If U.S. District Judge, Vaughn Walker, plays into the government’s hands by complying with this request and dismissing this very valid and justified lawsuit, it will be a sad day indeed for freedom and democracy.

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At long last, there’s some good news on this. The Judge has rejected the government’s request, and the case will carry on.

Click here for the full story.

Comment by Jeremy — July 22, 2006 #