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U.S. Government Moves To Dismiss EFF Case

iny0urbrain writes "The New York Times reports that the US government has asked a federal judge to dismiss the Electronic Frontier Foundation's civil liberties lawsuit against the AT&T Corporation because 'of a possibility that military and state secrets would otherwise be disclosed.' The statement concludes by saying: 'Finally, because the United States intends to assert the state secrets privilege and file a dispositive motion to dismiss this action, the United States requests that discovery proceedings be deferred until the government's submission has been considered and heard.' You can view the full text of the government's statement of interest (PDF) on the EFF's website." Sorry, hadn't had my coffee yet this morning, and double posted this one. Sadly, the first one is a mere two stories down. It's also still pouring into the submissions bin, so I'm not the only one not yet awake.

5 of 219 comments (clear)

  1. Woah. by babbling · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How many cases against the government is the EFF running at the moment, and why is the government using the same "national security" excuse for all of them? On the other hand, I guess the "national security" excuse has worked pretty damn well in the past. It worked for billions of dollars spent on a war...

  2. Comrads PLEASE!!! by bazmail · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The security of the Motherland outweighs any and all privacy concerns.

    --Brought to you by the Republican Proletariat.

  3. Troll. by babbling · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What a load of rubbish.

    Either you're trolling, or you have great difficulty distinguishing between reality and entertainment. Just because something is entertaining does not mean that it is something that is agreed with. These are two completely separate things.

    How would you react to the fact that some people watch V for Vendetta, 24, 1984, and True Lies? Would your head explode?

  4. Re:The NSA program probably IS Constitutional by Scrameustache · · Score: 4, Insightful

    broad powers in times of conflict and war

    And he went ahead and declared war on an abstract concept! We've always been at war with Eurasia, you know.

    As the targets of the program are terrorist or their affiliates, no reasonable person could argue

    Open source supports terrorism.
    Copyright infrigement funds terrorism.

    And most importantly: You can't ask who they're really spying on.

    --

    You can't take the sky from me...

  5. Re:whaa by neoform · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Illegally spying on citizens isn't criminal?

    the only reason this is a "civil" case, is cause the government is too corrupt to regulate it'self properly at this point.. it's left to the citizens to fight back, and unfortunetly, the only way is through "civil" law..

    --
    MABASPLOOM!