US gov bids to halt EFF's privacy case

By Matt Whipp

Posted on 16 May 2006 at 12:03

The US government has waded in to the EFF's privacy case against US telco AT&T with a cloak and dagger secret motion to have it dismissed.

The EFF launched a class-action suit against AT&T over its involvement in handing over the communications data of millions of its customers to the US government's National Security Agency (NSA).

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) says the US government on Saturday filed a legal brief and two affidavits to the court that are classified and unavailable even to the parties in the case, except in a public redacted form.

This public version, with all classified information extracted, claims that the case should be dismissed because a judicial enquiry into whether AT&T broke the law by its actions might reveal state secrets to the detriment of national security.

Even more perverse, this week lawyers at the Department of Justice investigating any involvement of that department in the case were unable to proceed with their enquiries after they were refused security clearance by the NSA.

'The government is trying to lock out any judicial inquiry into AT&T and the NSA's illegal spying operation,' said EFF Staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl. 'It is illegal for major telecommunications companies to simply hand over private customer information to the government. They should not be allowed to hide their illegal activity behind government assertions of "state secrets" to prevent the judiciary from stepping in to expose and punish the illegal behavior. If the government's motion is granted, it will have undermined the freedoms our country has fought so hard to protect.'

On Wednesday, at a hearing at a US District Court in San Francisco, the EFF will petition to unseal information that it believes support its case, including internal AT&T documents and a declaration by a retired AT&T technician.