Domestic surveillance lawsuit dismissed

A federal judge in Chicago has tossed out of court an ACLU lawsuit against AT&T. The reason? National security.

"The court is persuaded that requiring AT&T to confirm or deny whether it has disclosed large quantities of telephone records to the federal government could give adversaries of this country valuable insight into the government's intelligence activities," U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly said.

Kennelly ruled in a lawsuit filed by the
American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois on behalf of author Studs Terkel and other activists who said their constitutional rights were violated because of a National Security Agency program of gathering phone company records.

This lawsuit is not to be confused with the Electronic Frontier Foundation's suit against AT&T. The government urged dismissal of that suit as well. It is being heard in a California courtroom. The judge in that case refused to dismiss merely on the Justice Department's word that allowing it to go forward would harm national security.