Court likely to allow suit against AT&T, reject wiretap case

August 16, 2007
Court likely to allow suit against AT&T, reject wiretap case

Members of the three-judge panel seemed frustrated by the government's insistence that judges must defer to intelligence officials' assessment of the need for secrecy and dismiss the lawsuits without deciding whether the surveillance program was legal.

Judge Margaret McKeown paraphrased the government's position as, "We don't do it, trust us, and you can't ask about it."

Judge Harry Pregerson offered his own paraphrase: "Once the executive declares that certain activity is a state secret, that's the end of it. ... The king can do no wrong."

But the court appeared to be ready to draw a distinction between the AT&T suit, which claims the company colluded illegally with government eavesdropping and data-mining, and a suit by the now-defunct Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, which is a direct challenge to the surveillance program.