Fergie's Tech Blog

ACLU Fights Government Legal Maneuvers to Delay Challenges to Datamining

Via The ACLU.

The American Civil Liberties Union today argued before a federal panel that lawsuits against telecommunications companies over unlawful wiretapping by the National Security Agency should remain in the five states where the challenges were filed. ACLU affiliates in those states brought actions before local Public Utility Commissions that resulted in lawsuits that were heard today by the Multidistrict Litigation Panel as the government sought to get the cases consolidated and transferred to California.

“The lawsuit against the Maine PUC should be kept in Maine where the challenge was filed and where the affected population lives,” said Zachary Heiden, a staff attorney with the Maine Civil Liberties Union who argued before the panel. “The government is seeking to evade responsibility by having disparate lawsuits in individual states merged and moved across the country. Telephone customers in every state have the right to know whether their personal privacy has been violated.”

posted by Fergie @ 1/26/2007 01:27:00 PM