Posted Aug 17, 2006 at 11:41PM by Max F. Listed in: Cellular News Tags: AT&T, lawsuits, Verizon, bush administration
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telecomsAT&T, Verizon, and BellSouth could be in for a bit of legal trouble.

U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit tore through George W. Bush's domestic eavesdropping program. In a 43-page opinion, the judge declared the warrantless wiretaps to be unconstitutional. They violate the First Amendment right to free speech and the Fourth Amendment right to privacy. The National Security Agency has been ordered to immediately stop all monitoring of the phone calls and emails of Americans suspected of dealing with terrorists.

Telecommunications and internet companies who have been accused of working with Bush in the eavesdropping program could be in for some serious legal problems. There are already lawsuits against AT&T, Verizon, and BellSouth because of the eavesdropping. Now that a judge has found that warrantless wiretapping is illegal, the cases against them can only get stronger.

Of course, there wouldn't be a strong case against the telecoms if this ruling is appealed to a higher court and then overturned. So maybe, all the telecoms have to do is wait. Maybe the Bush administration will win the court battle in the end.

No, we don't expect this issue to end there. Who wants to bet this ends up in the Supreme Court?


[Via BusinessWeek] Permalink  |   Email this  |   Linking Blogs   |   Digg It!

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