New Jersey Demands Data on Phone Call Surveillance and Is Sued by U.S.

New Jersey Demands Data on Phone Call Surveillance and Is Sued by U.S.

By DAVID W. CHEN and MATT RICHTEL
Published: June 16, 2006

TRENTON, June 15 — The New Jersey attorney general has issued subpoenas to five telephone companies to determine whether any of them violated the state's consumer protection laws by providing records to the National Security Agency. Experts say it is the first legal move by a state to question the agency's program to compile calling records to track terrorist activities.

On Wednesday, the United States filed a lawsuit to block the subpoenas, setting up a legal showdown pitting the state's authority to protect consumers' rights against the federal government's national security powers.

"People in New Jersey and people everywhere have privacy rights," the state's attorney general, Zulima V. Farber, said on Thursday. "What we were trying to determine was whether the phone companies in New Jersey had violated any law or any contractual obligations with their consumers by supplying information to some government entity, simply by request, and not by any court order or search warrant."

This latest confrontation over the invocation of national security began last month, when Ms. Farber issued the subpoenas to the companies — AT&T, Verizon, Qwest, Sprint Nextel and Cingular Wireless — to determine whether they had turned over the phone records to the federal government without a court order, in possible violation of state laws.

more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/16/nyregion/16subpoena.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

that should cause us the greatest concern. The implications of the outcome of this are considerable.

We need a regime change here in America, and quickly!

Seriously though, nice to be first in this way.

This is a new one.

Now, who are they keeping information from? The feds know all this information; so do the phone companies. The terrorists know all they need to know: Don't use your phone to plot your next bomb strike. So, who's being kept in the dark about what the feds and the phone companies have colluded to do? The taxpayers, basically.

Welcome to George W. Bush's America, Red Staters, where despite the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, you are no longer secure from government intrusion in your person, property or papers. Feel safer?

n/t

should be doing this...

it's about tim someone did something!

:kick: