Fresno Group Files Privacy Lawsuit

Saturday, May 13, 2006

May 13, 2006 -- Your private phone calls may already be public, because the NSA bought records from the nation's phone carriers. Now a fresno group is suing those companies, and the case could go much further than Fresno Superior Court.

Attorney Butch Wagner says all Californians should be concerned about what their phone companies—and the federal government—are doing.

"The big deal is it's an invasion of your privacy, just like anyone prying into any of your private, personal business, and once the government gets this information, they're not gonna give it back, and they can do anything they want with it," said Wagner.

The lawsuit contends AT&T, Bell South and Verizon participated in a secret and illegal agreement with the National Security Agency to analyze vast quantities of California's telephone communications.

Wagner says these are records the federal government has no right to without going to court.

They are not public records, they are private records and by law the phone company cannot give them to anybody other than yourself, your attorney or an agent you designate, or another phone company they've contracted to," said Wagner.

Verizon responded by saying they will provide customer information to a government agency only where authorized by law for appropriately defined and focused purposes.

Action News legal analyst and attorney Tony Capozzi believes the federal government will step into this case and keep it out of state jurisdiction.

"The plaintiffs here say it's a state issue; there's a violation of their state privacy rights under the state constitution. Well, I think the federal law is going to trump that and overtake whatever California law says. The federal government is going to come in and say yes, we did this, but based on national security this trumps any California law or constitution," said Capozzi.

But Wagner contends it doesn't matter in the long run if it's a state or federal issue, because the law has been broken and the constitutional rights of millions have been violated.

"There is no one above it, not the president, not the NSA, no one. And that's what makes America the great country that it is, we have these laws that everyone must abide by," said Wagner.

Only the phone company Qwest refused to turn over its customer's phone records. The NSA says it needed the records to look for terrorist links.

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