JUDGE DISMISSES PHONE RECORDS LAWSUIT

Staff and agencies
25 July, 2006




By MIKE ROBINSON, Associated Press Writer 42 minutes ago

CHICAGO - Citing national security, a federal judge Tuesday threw out a lawsuit aimed at blocking AT&T from giving telephone records to the government for use in the war on terror.

Kennelly ruled in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois on behalf of author Studs Terkel and other activists who said their constitutional rights were violated because of a National Security Agency program of gathering phone company records.

The ACLU argued that the practice was no longer secret, because numerous news reports had made it clear that phone records had been given to the agency.

He also said Terkel and the other plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which sought class-action status, had not shown that their own records had been provided to the government. As a result, they lacked standing to sue the government, he said.

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How can they show that their own records had been provided to the government, if the government won't allow the phone company to tell them if they had been? Well, bend over and kiss your rights good bye Americans...... thanks for giving it a go Studs!!

Question Girl