Can phone companies be sued for

[happydreams]

releasing private and/or confidential information of their customers to the government without a court order?

Could a class action lawsuit be used?

[rawtribe]

1. Yes (Maybe) see the EFF website

http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/att/

[katinmn]

2. thanks for that link!

[happydreams]

7. Thanks for that. Excellent link.

[0007]

3. It just donned on me now why AT& T is back in action.

Gotta be something in the way the laws are written.

[Atman]

6. Paul Begala just made a great point about AT&T

AT&T is trying to get control of internet access, to charge us for it, and to get preferential access to bandwith. If BushCo came to you (you being AT&T), and said "give us your records" while you're trying to get BushCo to grant you all this new control, wouldn't you just hand the stuff over? If nothing else, it demonstrates a very, very bad situation.

[Atman]

4. Yes, yes and yes

They can be sued, they are being sued. There is NOTHING in your user agreement that allows your service provider to hand over your records without a warrant. That's the key...WITHOUT A WARRANT. The Bushies are trying to frame this as "we want to know what Usama is saying!" as if that is some kind of excuse for illegal activity. Bush may THINK he has the right to commit crimes, but no court as granted him that right. He is making it up as he goes along. Therefore, unless and until the courts legally sanctify the concept of "The POTUS can do anything he wants in the name of fighting "terra," then absolutely...SUE AWAY, BAY-BEE!

[Joe for Clark]

8. I really think - gop shouldn't have pissed off the judiciary

so badly. And I bet they are really sorry they did so about now. That whole "activist judges" out of control thing. The ACLU will have a field day with this.

Joe

[happydreams]

9. Exactly what I was thinking; its the "without out a warrant"

issue. This will force the whole domestic spying issue onto another level if the people/customers can find a way of exercising their legal rights.

[jbond56]

5. yes

eff has filed a case on another aspect of the nsa spying program.

http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2006_04.php#004613


DONATE DONATE DONATE

[happydreams]

10. Wha?

"The government does not listen to domestic phone calls without court approval," said Bush, without confirming the program of the National Security Agency. "We're not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans."



http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&u=/ap/20060511/ap_on_go_pr_wh/nsa_phone_records_23

[happydreams]

11. Kick