 | |
| |
TechnologyDaily Mobile
Missouri Spying Probe Fought By Justice
by Michael Martinez
The Justice Department on Tuesday filed a lawsuit to block an investigation by Missouri regulators into whether AT&T has violated the state's privacy laws by participating in a domestic surveillance program aimed at terrorism.
The suit claims that subpoenas filed last month by Missouri Public Service Commissioners Robert Clayton and Steve Gaw jeopardize national security. Clayton and Gaw are investigating whether AT&T improperly gave the government telephone records without customer consent.
Justice filed a similar suit earlier this summer to block an investigation by New Jersey Attorney General Zulima Farber. In both suits, the department has argued that sensitive information would be compromised by allowing the probes to proceed.
"Compliance with the subpoena as issued by those officers would first place the carriers in a position of having to confirm or deny the existence of information that cannot be confirmed or denied without causing exceptionally grave harm to national security," according to the Missouri suit. "And if particular carriers are indeed supplying foreign intelligence information to the federal government, compliance with the subpoenas would require disclosure of the details of that activity."
Clayton said he was taken aback that the suit made little reference to Missouri's privacy laws. He also said he was surprised that it made no reference to the decision of a federal judge in California last week to allow a spying suit against AT&T to move forward. In that case, U.S District Judge Vaughn Walker denied a request by the government and by AT&T to dismiss the suit based on the state-secrets privilege.
"The most striking thing that I noticed in the lawsuit is that they cited no law that says our Missouri privacy laws do not have to be followed," Clayton said in a phone interview. "There is nothing in this lawsuit that says AT&T is relieved of their privacy obligations in Missouri."
The California case has prompted authorities in other states to reconsider lawsuits regarding the activities of phone companies and the National Security Agency. In Rhode Island, Division of Public Utilities Administrator Thomas Ahern on Tuesday reversed a ruling made last month to dismiss a complaint filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. It had requested an investigation into AT&T and Verizon Communications.
Division Chief of Information Thomas Kogut said Ahern concluded the California decision had revealed a misunderstanding about the legal implications of the ACLU's suit in his earlier ruling. He said regulators intend to allow the case to proceed, even though some issues of discovery could be challenged in state or federal court.
"It made clear that we had put too much finality in the earlier procedural ruling, and it caused us to reconsider our stance on the whole situation," he said.
Minnesota Prosecutor Defends Videogame Law
The top law enforcer in Minnesota this week went to bat for recently passed legislation to prohibit minors from purchasing violent videogames.
In a memorandum filed in a U.S. district court, Attorney General Mike Hatch urged the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by the videogame industry and entertainment retailers for a permanent injunction on the law, which was signed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty earlier this summer.
In the suit, the Entertainment Software Association and Entertainment Retailers Association argue that the statute, which would subject children younger than 17 who attempt to purchase restricted games to $25 fines, is not constitutional and cannot be enforced. Judges in California, Illinois and Michigan have struck down similar measures on constitutional grounds.
According to Hatch, Minnesota's new law withstands constitutional scrutiny because it is "narrowly tailored to serve the state's compelling interests in protecting its children." Furthermore, he said the state's incorporation of ratings established by the Entertainment Software Rating Board is not an unconstitutional use of legislative authority.
"The court here must ultimately balance the state's compelling interests in protecting the psychological well-being and ethical and moral development of minors against the limited First Amendment right of minors to access speech of very low societal value," he said.
Hatch also expressed serious doubt about the value of the speech the videogame industry is intent on protecting. He said that there is substantial empirical evidence that certain types of games contain material that is harmful to minors but that the state still is not required to prove with scientific certainty that the games cause such harm.
"There is, in fact, no other single state interest more compelling than the protection of the well-being of the state's children," he said. "On the other side of the scale in this case, there may be few, if any, other forms of speech, even though protected, that are of any lesser societal value than repulsive videogames depicting the bloody slaughter of babies and animals, urination, defecation, rape, decapitation, dismemberment and disembowelment."
Online Voter Registration Limited In States
States have been slow to adopt Internet-based technologies that could make their voting systems more efficient and secure, according to a report released this week by the group Electionline.org.
According to the study, states most commonly use the Internet to streamline processes for finding and printing voter registration forms, but they have been slower to embrace the technology in other facets. The study said that even though 41 states allow voters to download and print registration forms, only in Arizona can they complete and submit the forms online.
"Differences aside, there is one universal across the country: The possibility of less-cumbersome, more technologically advanced and user-friendly voter registration remains largely unexplored," the report said.
Electionline also found that only nine states -- Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Virginia and Washington -- and Washington, D.C., currently allow voters to view their registration status over the Web. Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania have deployed online systems to direct voters to their appropriate polling places, the report said.
"While Americans can file taxes and renew vehicle registrations online, make campsite registrations, secure fishing and hunting licenses, receive business assistance and partake in a myriad of other services from states, voter registration still looks like it did years ago," according to the report.
NEW FEATURE
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
