Judge questions law giving telecoms immunity

Bob Egelko
San Francisco Chronicle
Tuesday, February 24, 2009

A federal judge in San Francisco is raising questions about the constitutionality of a law designed to dismiss suits against telecommunications companies accused of cooperating with government wiretapping.

Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker has asked President Obama’s Justice Department to present its views by Wednesday on whether the law gives the attorney general too much power to decide whether a company is immune from lawsuits. Obama supported the measure as a senator when Congress approved it last year.

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Department spokesman Charles Miller declined to discuss the administration’s response before Wednesday’s filing. But Obama’s vote for the bill last summer, and statements by Attorney General Eric Holder at his confirmation hearing last month, indicate the department will defend the law.

Walker is presiding over lawsuits in which telecommunications companies’ customers have accused the firms of illegally sharing their telephone and e-mail records with federal agents.

Full story here.

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