Fergie's Tech Blog

Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Blocking Phone Records

An AP newswire article by Mike Robinson, via The Chicago Sun-Times, reports that:

A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit aimed at blocking AT&T from giving telephone records to government terrorist hunters, saying that even allowing the company to confirm or deny it had done so "would adversely affect our national security."

"The court is persuaded that requiring AT&T to confirm or deny whether it has disclosed large quantities of telephone records to the federal government could give adversaries of this country valuable insight into the government's intelligence activities," Judge Matthew F. Kennelly said.

Kennelly ruled in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois on behalf of author Studs Terkel and other activists who said their constitutional rights were violated because of a National Security Agency program of gathering phone company records illegally.

posted by Fergie @ 7/25/2006 01:56:00 PM