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EFF Lawsuit Against AT&T Can Continue
David Utter
Staff Writer
2006-07-21
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US District Court Judge Vaughn Walker refused to dismiss the case despite the federal government moving to do so under state secrets privilege.
 | | EFF Lawsuit Against AT&T Can Continue |  |
It is especially noteworthy that Judge Walker denied the government's motion to dismiss as well as its motion for summary judgment on the grounds of state secrets. Precedent had been in favor of such a dismissal, yet Walker has decided to allow the case to move forward.
AT&T had also moved for dismissal, and that motion proved as unsuccessful as the government's efforts. Instead, Walker ordered all parties to return to court on August 8 for a further case management conference, he wrote in his decision on EFF v AT&T.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation was pleased with the decision in its class-action lawsuit. The organization has made the case that AT&T cooperation with the National Security Agency in surveillance of millions of Americans violated federal law.
"He rejected the government's bold attempt to sweep this entire case under the rug on day one," attorney Robert Fram of law firm Heller Ehrman said in a conference call of Walker's decision. "He made it very clear that the state secrets privilege that the government invoked in its motion cannot be used to shield government illegality or AT&T illegality."
Walker also wants to appoint an expert to assist the court in considering the technical information submitted as evidence by EFF that details how AT&T captured traffic at a switching facility. He ordered AT&T to show cause by July 31st that one should not be appointed.
Some of the information has already been revealed by Wired News. They obtained a statement made by whistleblower Mark Klein detailing the surveillance in progress in AT&T's San Francisco switching center.
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Tags: EFF, AT&T, Mark Klein
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About the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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