Wiretapping ruling protects carriers - not you

Should companies be punished for letting the government wiretap your phone line? The courts don't think so. US District Court dismissed 46 civil suits filed against several of the major carriers, such as AT&T and Verizon,  for allowing the National Security Agency to wiretap their networks without a court-issued wiretap.

The ruling upholds the FISA Amendments Act introduced by President Bush, which provided immunity to lawsuit if the US government provided adequate proof to a court that surveillance was authorized by the President between September 11, 2001 and January 17, 2007.

"The retroactive immunity law unconstitutionally takes away Americans' claims arising out of the First and Fourth Amendments, violates the federal government's separation of powers as established in the Constitution, and robs innocent telecom customers of their rights without due process of law," said Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Legal Director Cindy Cohn. The EFF and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) California and Illinois affiliates are planning to appeal the decision to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing that FISAAA is unconstitutional.

Walker did leave the possibility of accountability for the government, holding that "plaintiffs retain a means of redressing the harms alleged in their complaints by proceeding against governmental actors and entities who are, after all, the primary actors in the alleged wiretapping activities." EFF is also suing the government for the illegal surveillance in a separate case, Jewel v. NSA.