A federal judge has denied motions by the US government and telecoms provider
AT&T that sought to block a lawsuit centring on the the carrier's alleged
cooperation in a government wiretapping programme.
The suit was brought forward last January by the Electronic Frontier
Foundation (EFF), which claims that AT&T illegally allows the National
Security Agency to listen in on traffic on its network.
The US government was asking for a dismissal of the case because it could
expose state secrets.
It argued that the wiretapping programme, if it exists, is a state secret.
Additionally it was claimed that any evidence arising from the case would also
be secret, so preventing AT&T from staging an effective defence.
The judge, however, ruled that the existence of the case is already common
knowledge and by itself cannot be considered a state secret.
He proposed appointing an independent expert to determine whether evidence
should be considered a secret.
The EFF praised the ruling. "Judge Walker correctly found that the
government, after having already admitted to and extensively commented on the
NSA's spying programme, cannot now claim that it is a secret and sweep AT&
T's role under the rug," said EFF staff attorney Kevin Bankston.
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