Wiretap suits against telecoms thrown out
p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- Chief judge Vaughn Walker (right), of California’s Northern District, threw out dozens of cases brought against a host of telecom companies (pdf), ruling the plaintiffs couldn’t overcome a law passed last summer granting retroactive immunity to companies that helped the government.
“He also ruled in favor of the government in another case and put a stop to efforts by five states to investigate the telecom companies,” says Law.com.
Telecommunications companies have immunity from liability under the controversial FISA Amendments Act (FISAAA), say the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) California and Illinois affiliates, and the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation), who are to appeal the decision to the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing FISAAA is unconstitutional.
Signed by President Bush in 2008, the FISAAA, “allowed for the dismissal of the lawsuits over the telecoms’ participation in the warrantless surveillance program if the government secretly certifies to the court that the surveillance did not occur, was legal, or was authorized by the president,” says the EFF.
Then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey filed that classified certification with the court in September and demanded that the cases be dismissed.”"
“The immunity legislation that the court upheld today gives the telephone companies a free pass for flouting the law and violating the privacy rights of millions of their customers,” said Ann Brick, ACLU of Northern California staff attorney.
Judge Walker has now left the door open to accountability for the government, holding that, “plaintiffs retain a means of redressing the harms alleged in their complaints by proceeding against governmental actors and entities who are, after all, the primary actors in the alleged wiretapping activities,” says the EFF, which is also suing the government for the illegal surveillance in a separate case, Jewel v NSA.
The EFF and ACLU say they’re co-coordinating counsel for all 46 outstanding lawsuits concerning the government’s warrantless surveillance program.
Law.com – Warrantless Wiretapping Cases Dismissed Against Telecom Companies, June 4, 2009
EFF – EFF and ACLU Planning to Appeal Dismissal of Dozens of Spying Cases, June 3, 2009
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