San Francisco - A federal judge has dismissed Jewel v. NSA, a case from the
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) on behalf of AT&T customers challenging
the National Security Agency's mass surveillance of millions of ordinary
Americans' phone calls and emails.
"We're deeply disappointed in the judge's ruling," said EFF Legal Director
Cindy Cohn. "This ruling robs innocent telecom customers of their privacy rights
without due process of law. Setting limits on Executive power is one of the most
important elements of America's system of government, and judicial oversight is
a critical part of that."
In the ruling, issued late Thursday, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Vaughn
Walker held that the privacy harm to millions of Americans from the illegal
spying dragnet was not a "particularized injury" but instead a "generalized
grievance" because almost everyone in the United States has a phone and Internet
service.
"The alarming upshot of the court's decision is that so long as the
government spies on all Americans, the courts have no power to review or halt
such mass surveillance even when it is flatly illegal and unconstitutional,"
said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston. "With new revelations of illegal
spying being reported practically every other week -- just this week, we learned
that the FBI has been unlawfully obtaining Americans' phone records using
Post-It notes rather than proper legal process -- the need for judicial
oversight when it comes to government surveillance has never been clearer."
Jewel v. NSA is aimed at ending the NSA's dragnet surveillance of millions of
ordinary Americans and holding accountable the government officials who
illegally authorized it. Evidence in the case includes undisputed documents
provided by former AT&T telecommunications technician Mark Klein showing
AT&T has routed copies of Internet traffic to a secret room in San Francisco
controlled by the NSA. That same evidence is central to Hepting v. AT&T, a
class-action lawsuit that's currently under appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the 9th Circuit.
For the judge's full order:
http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/jewel/jeweldismissal12110.pdf
For more on warrantless wiretapping and NSA spying:
http://www.eff.org/issues/nsa-spying
Contacts:
Kevin Bankston
Senior Staff Attorney
Electronic Frontier
Foundation
bankston@eff.org
Cindy Cohn
Legal Director
Electronic Frontier Foundation
cindy@eff.org
Related Issues: NSA Spying
Related Cases: Jewel v.
NSA
Electronic Frontier Foundation