Top > Business > 2006 > July > 2006-07-27

ACLU Lawsuit over Phone Records Discarded

A federal judge has discarded a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Illinois ? on behalf of privacy rights activists - to block major phone operator AT&T from providing the telephone records of its customers to the White House, under the rubric of enhancing U.S. national security. The revelation that the National Security Agency, or NSA, had requested or had already been given private phone information about suspicious customers sparked calls throughout the media, and even in Congress, to investigate.

?The court is persuaded that requiring AT&T to confirm or deny whether it has disclosed large quantities of telephone records to the federal government could give adversaries of this country valuable insight into the government`s intelligence activities,? United States District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly said in announcing his decision. Kennelly said that the ACLU?s class-action lawsuit had not shown that the ACLU?s own records had been revealed?without this evidence, only those who think their information might have been illegally shared had the standing to sue.

Attorneys for the White House and the Justice Department argued that revealing the nature of the National Security Agency?s collection of phone numbers, and said that AT&T, if forced to reveal whether or not it had provided phone numbers to the NSA, would have violated a law forbidding the exposure of America?s ?state secrets?.