Judge Tosses Suits Claiming Illegal Wiretaps by Telecoms
A federal judge has upheld a law immunizing telecommunications companies from liability for participating in the government’s warrantless wiretapping program and dismissed dozens of lawsuits seeking damages.
Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker of San Francisco tossed the suits yesterday, but allowed a different suit to proceed that was filed against the government, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Lawyer Jon Eisenberg said the Islamic group he represents will make two arguments at a hearing scheduled for Sept. 1: that it has the right to sue and that President George W. Bush violated the Constitution by ordering wiretaps without court or congressional approval.
“Now is the day of reckoning the American people deserve,” Eisenberg said after the hearing, according to an account in the Recorder. Eisenberg’s client is the now-defunct Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, which claims that its lawyers were illegally wiretapped.
The New York Times says the ruling is a major victory for AT&T and other telecoms, which could have faced billions of dollars in damages if they lost the cases. The federal government was also a winner because it had supported the companies’ defense.
Plaintiffs in the telecom suits vowed to appeal Walker’s ruling. Lawyers for the Electronic Frontier Foundation had argued the immunity law violates separation of powers by allowing the executive branch to dictate how pending lawsuits should proceed in the judicial branch, the Daily Journal (sub. req.) reports. The group also contends the law violated the plaintiffs’ due process rights.
