Surveillance lawsuit would harm national security, goverment says

By Julia Cheever, Bay City News Service

June 20, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) - The U.S. Justice Department has told a federal judge in San Francisco that allowing a surveillance lawsuit against AT&T Corp. to proceed "would cause grave harm to the nation's security."

U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker is scheduled to hear arguments on Friday on the government's motion for dismissal of a lawsuit filed against AT&T by the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation on behalf of four Californians.

The government contends the case must be dismissed because there is no way it could be litigated without revealing state secrets vital to national security.

In a brief filed with the judge last week, Justice Department lawyers wrote that "the very subject matter of the case is a state secret."

The lawsuit alleges that AT&T has violated communications privacy laws and the plaintiffs' constitutional rights by allegedly giving the National Security Agency records of millions of Americans' telephone and Internet communications.

But the government argues in its brief, "Plaintiffs cannot establish whether or not such cooperation exists because that factual question is itself a state secret."

The brief argues that "the state secrets privilege is solidly rooted" in the president's constitutional authority as commander in-chief.

The lawsuit was filed only against AT&T, but the government has asked to become a party to the case for purposes of seeking dismissal of the lawsuit.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has argued that the case against AT&T can proceed without revealing any security secrets.

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