A key issue in the well-publicized fight between President Bush and leaders in the House of Representatives over the proposed Bill to extend the federal government’s terrorism surveilance authority is the inclusion of provisions giving retroactive immunity. See, e.g. http://www.cnbc.com/id/23609777/for/cnbc. Bush supports the Senate Bill, which includes the immunity provision and has threatened to veto any alternative legislation that the House might propose that does not include immunity. Various telecommunications companies face class actions alleging that they acted illegally in assisting the NSA in intercepting telephone and Internet communications and other private information about their customers. At least 40 cases were transferred to a single federal court, the United States District Court for the Northern district of California, by the Multidistrict Litigation (MDL) Panel. The website for consumer advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation, one of the plaintiffs, has an excellent database of the court filings in the various lawsuits. http://www.eff.org/cases/att.
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Paul Karlsgodt
Raj Chohan
CAB Staff
