A San Francisco federal judge issued a court order for the federal government to turn over--by tomorrow--records of its recent discussions with telecom lobbyists about efforts to have telco immunity included in new surveillance legislation. The court acted on a request from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which was seeking to expedite the delivery of information it had previously requested, but that the Bush administration said wouldn't be available until Dec. 31.
The data could help EFF's wiretap lawsuit against AT&T, and though the court order doesn't include data related to actual surveillance that took place, it nevertheless could help revive the telco immunity debate within Congress before the end of the year.
For more:
- read this story from CNET
Related articles:
- The Senate Judiciary Committee tussled over telco immunity earlier this month