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AT&T Data Still Part Of Spying Suit
by Mathew Honan, for Technology Daily
SAN FRANCISCO -- A U.S. district judge on Wednesday denied AT&T's request that a group of privacy advocates return sealed company documents containing information on surveillance activities of the U.S. government.
Judge Vaughn Walker also ruled that the documents will remain under seal for now. He set June 23 as the date to hear government and AT&T motions to dismiss the case.
The judge for the northern California district did not grant the Electronic Frontier Foundation the preliminary injunction it was seeking against AT&T, and he did not prevent AT&T from continuing to cooperate with the government surveillance program. He postponed making a decision on the matter until after hearing arguments in June.
Wednesday's hearing stemmed from a suit filed by EFF against AT&T. The privacy group alleged that AT&T illegally gave the National Security Agency access to customer telephone and Internet communications without a warrant. A former AT&T technician gave EFF and The New York Times the documents that alleged the NSA spying, attorneys for EFF said.
AT&T attempted to have the hearing closed to the public. However, in a decision late Tuesday, Walker denied the motion. AT&T attorney Dave Anderson on Tuesday attempted to have Walker compel EFF to return the documents, arguing that they would compromise trade secrets.
Maria Morris, an attorney with Lerach, Coughlin, Stoia, Geller, Rudman and Robbins representing EFF, told the judge that in seeking the return of the documents, "they are asking you to suppress evidence of AT&T's criminal activity."
Anderson vigorously took issue with that characterization. He called it "reckless," adding that "we completely deny those allegations."
Yet Walker did not accept AT&T's argument. He denied its request to have the documents returned while expressing an interest in preserving the status quo. He reserved the right to revisit the issue.
In another twist, Carl Nichols, deputy assistant attorney general with the Justice Department, argued that the documents constitute a state secret. He said the Constitution gives the president authority to preserve such secrets and so "trumps, unfortunately, a private litigant's right to have his or her day in court."
Nichols asked the judge to review a classified motion to dismiss in a confidential manner. "To do otherwise," he said, "would be to disclose facts to a number of people, the result of which would be harmful to national security."
However, Cindy Cohn, an attorney representing EFF, argued that the case could be litigated without reference to any state secrets. She conceded that the judge had reason to look at the government's classified information but said that first the EFF should be allowed to argue publicly that the information does not constitute a secret.
Walker said attorneys must file briefs on the matter by May 22.
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