Eavesdropping Suit Against AT&T Survives Dismissal Motion
by TChris
A legal challenge to AT&T's cooperation with the Bush administration's warrantless eavesdropping program survived dismissal today, as U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker rejected the administration's oft-repeated claim that any scrutiny of its domestic spying programs would endanger national security.
"It might appear that none of the subject matter in this litigation could be considered a secret given that the alleged surveillance programs have been so widely reported in the media,'' Walker said.
Walker also wrote that he did not see how allowing the lawsuit to continue could threaten national security.
"The compromise between liberty and security remains a difficult one,'' Walker said. "But dismissing this case at the outset would sacrifice liberty for no apparent enhancement of security.''
In addition to rejecting the government's "state's secrets" defense, Judge Walker concluded that AT&T is not entitled, at this early stage, to dismissal on a variety of technical defenses or because it enjoys "qualified immunity." That defense is usually available only to government employees, and Judge Walker declined to bring AT&T under its umbrella, in part because the allegations in the complaint, if proved, wouldn't support a claim that AT&T acted in accordance with a reasonable understanding of the law. The AP reporter underplays Judge Walker's forceful language by writing that Walker "suggested the case had some merit." Judge Walker wrote (pdf): "AT&T cannot seriously contend that a reasonable entity in its position could have believed that the alleged domestic dragnet was legal.''
The lawsuit will move ahead, although the administration will likely try to move it to an appellate court. Or worse. As Last Night in Little Rock warned:
Thursday, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) introduced a bill to remove that case and any like it to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review in Washington where it could be heard in secret and only the Justice Department could be heard.
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