[Infowarrior] - Judge won't halt AT&T wiretapping lawsuit

[Richard Forno]

Judge won't halt AT&T wiretapping lawsuit

By Declan McCullagh
http://news.com.com/Judge+wont+halt+ATT+wiretapping+lawsuit/2100-1036_3-6136
841.html

Story last modified Fri Nov 17 15:51:53 PST 2006

SAN FRANCISCO--A federal district judge on Friday rejected the Bush
administration's request to halt a lawsuit that alleges AT&T unlawfully
cooperated with a broad and unconstitutional government surveillance
program.

U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker said the lawsuit could continue while a
portion of it was being appealed, despite the U.S. Justice Department's
arguments that further hearings and other proceedings would consequently
endanger national security.

"I do think these are matters we can proceed on," Walker said toward the end
of the status conference here, which began at 11 a.m. PST and was attended
by around 50 attorneys from the government, nonprofit groups, class action
law firms and major telecommunications companies.

Friday's ruling represents another preliminary victory for the Electronic
Frontier Foundation, which filed its lawsuit against AT&T in January. In its
suit, the EFF charged that AT&T has opened its telecommunications facilities
up to the National Security Agency and continues to "to assist the
government in its secret surveillance of millions of ordinary Americans."

The ruling is also a win for attorneys in 47 other cases against numerous
large telecommunications providers. The cases are in the process of being
consolidated into one mammoth lawsuit in the northern district of
California.

Last week, the Justice Department filed a 27-page request (click for PDF)
saying at the least, the court should halt the AT&T case because any
proceeding would "indirectly confirm or deny classified facts and cause harm
to the national security."

In July, Walker rejected the Justice Department's attempt to have the suit
against AT&T dismissed. That prompted federal prosecutors to appeal to the
9th Circuit a few days later. Along with AT&T, Verizon Communications,
BellSouth and Comcast, they urged Walker to delay the case in front of him
until the appeals courts reached a decision, which could take years, if it
goes to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The "entire process is fraught with risk," a Justice Department attorney
said Friday. Bruce Ericson, an attorney for AT&T at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw
Pittman, said that more proceedings would be useless because all his client
could put in "a public answer" would be "a general denial."


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