[Infowarrior] - Warrantless surveillance lawsuit thrown out
Richard Forno
rforno at infowarrior.org
Thu Jun 4 03:59:47 UTC 2009
Warrantless surveillance lawsuit thrown out
A federal district judge has dismissed a lawsuit over warrantless
surveillance that the EFF and ACLU filed against prominent
telecommunications companies on behalf of the Al-Haramain Islamic
Foundation. The judge affirmed that the telecom companies are
protected by the immunity provisions added to FISA by Congress.
By Ryan Paul | Last updated June 3, 2009 10:10 PM CT
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/06/warrantless-surveillance-lawsuit-thrown-out.ars
Federal district judge Vaughn Walker has rejected lawsuits that aimed
to hold telecommunications companies accountable for their role in a
controversial warrantless surveillance program that was orchestrated
in secret by the federal government. The Electronic Frontier
Foundation and American Civil Liberties Union are preparing to appeal
the dismissal.
The warrantless surveillance program is one the more contentious
controversies that still lingers from Bush's tenure in office. The
Bush administration attempted to leverage the State Secrets privilege
to block litigation that aimed to hold participants in the
surveillance program accountable for violating privacy laws. When it
became clear that the courts were going to allow the lawsuits to move
forward, Congress intervened and passed a FISA amendment to grant the
telecom companies explicit immunity. President Obama voted in favor of
immunity, despite consistently promising to oppose it.
EFF and ACLU's lawsuit against the telecoms on behalf of the Al-
Haramain Islamic Foundation is one the most significant pending
lawsuits targeting the warrantless surveillance program, and it was
viewed by privacy advocates as a means of bringing accountability and
more robust judicial oversight to the surveillance mess. Judge Walker
has thrown out the suit, citing the FISA telecom immunity amendment as
the basis for dismissal. He affirmed that the evidence provided under
seal by the government demonstrated that the conduct of the telecoms
meets the criteria for immunity grants.
The ACLU and EFF argued that the surveillance program was so broad and
far-reaching that it necessarily extended beyond those boundaries and
should not be entitled to protection. They contend that the function
of the surveillance program was not to detect or prevent terrorist
attacks, but to broadly enable collection of communication records
regardless of whether those records are specifically needed.
"While plaintiffs have made a valiant effort to challenge the
sufficiency of certifications they are barred by statute from
reviewing, their contentions under section 802 are not sufficiently
substantial to persuade the court that the intent of Congress in
enacting the statute should be frustrated in this proceeding in which
the court is required to apply the statute," Walker wrote in his
decision. "The court has examined the Attorney General's submissions
and has determined that he has met his burden under section 802(a).
The court is prohibited by section 802(c)(2) from opining further."
The EFF and the ACLU are planning to launch an appeal, asserting that
the FISA amendments which granted telecom immunity are unconstitutional.
"We're deeply disappointed in Judge Walker's ruling today," said EFF
Legal Director Cindy Cohn in a statement. "The retroactive immunity
law unconstitutionally takes away Americans' claims arising out of the
First and Fourth Amendments, violates the federal government's
separation of powers as established in the Constitution, and robs
innocent telecom customers of their rights without due process of law."
The Obama administration has indicated that it has no plans to hold
the telecoms or previous administration accountable for alleged
illegal activity. It will continue to sit on the details of the
surveillance program and will not help to facilitate any of the
ongoing litigation. It's looking increasingly likely that the telecoms
will get a free pass and the true scope of the Bush administration's
surveillance program will never be known.
More information about the Infowarrior
mailing list