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By David Kravets~WIRED
Two months ago, President Bush won congressional approval to immunize the nation’s telecommunications companies from lawsuits accusing them of helping Bush funnel Americans’ electronic communications to the National Security Agency without warrants — all in the name of national security following the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
But the telecoms, facing 36 lawsuits commingled as one in a San Francisco federal court, still haven’t been granted immunity in the lawsuits alleging they breached their customers’ Fourth Amendment right to privacy. On Friday, however, Justice Department special counsel Anthony Coppolino said the government would comply with the immunity bill’s procedural hurdles by Sept. 19 to seek blanket immunity on behalf of the companies.
Whether U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker would abide by the government’s wishes is an open question. Last year, Walker refused to dismiss the cases on other grounds.
“It’s a brand-new statute, hot off the government printing press,” Walker said in a hearing Friday.
In response to Coppolino’s remarks, Walker set a Dec. 2 hearing, in which he would allow the Electronic Frontier Foundation to challenge the immunity legislation Congress passed July 9 in a bid to keep the lawsuits alive.
