[Infowarrior] - Justice Dept. wants NSA suits consolidated for D.C. court

Tue Jun 20 19:15:41 EDT 2006

Justice Dept. wants NSA suits consolidated for D.C. court

By Reuters
http://news.com.com/Justice+Dept.+wants+NSA+suits+consolidated+for+D.C.+cour
t/2100-1028_3-6085874.html

Story last modified Tue Jun 20 11:21:04 PDT 2006

The U.S. Department of Justice wants to consolidate at least two dozen
lawsuits against the government and Verizon Communications that involve the
National Security Agency's alleged access to telephone customer records.

The government on Monday filed a motion supporting Verizon's request that 20
class action lawsuits accusing the company of helping the foreign
intelligence surveillance program be combined in a single court in
Washington.

"Given the national security concerns in this case, the District of Columbia
would be the most logical and convenient forum," the filing said.

The Justice Department also asked that five other lawsuits against the U.S.
government related to the surveillance program be consolidated and
coordinated with the Verizon proceeding.

Government lawyers said they planned to seek dismissal of the lawsuits
against Verizon by asserting military and state secrets privileges under
U.S. law. Moving the cases to one court would expedite the process while
protecting classified information, it said.

Combining all the cases would "allow the resolution of this threshold matter
in the most efficient manner for the courts and the parties while protecting
highly sensitive and classified information, the disclosure of which would
be harmful to the national security," the filing said.

Class action lawsuits were filed against Verizon, AT&T and BellSouth after
USA Today reported that they gave access and turned over call data records
to the NSA to help track terrorist plots.

BellSouth has denied turning over records or providing access to the NSA,
while Verizon has said that it does not provide the government unfettered
access to customer records. AT&T has said it helps when asked by the
government, but only within the law.

Verizon on May 24 asked the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation to
consolidate 20 similar lawsuits that were filed against the company in 14
federal district courts.