The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is suing AT&T over the telco's involvement in the government's warrantless wiretapping program says the latest proposal announced last week by Sen. Kit Bond of Missouri is a "sham that's even worse than the original immunity provision passed by the Senate."
Said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston. "The stacked-deck immunity determination to be made by the court apparently still doesn't include any meaningful review of the telecoms' conduct or the legality of their cooperation with the NSA … and the deck would be stacked even more by the proposed transfer to the FISA court -- the most conservative and secretive federal court in the nation. Bottom line: it's still immunity, and this so-called compromise concedes nothing."
EFF represents the plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit accusing AT&T of violating their rights by illegally assisting the NSA in widespread domestic spying. Some 40 additional suits are pending.
For more:
- See the EFF press release
- Or, the Associated Press story
- For more on Hepting v. AT&T