State governments opposing Telcos spying for Feds — slapped with DOJ lawsuits
The U.S. government sued Maine officials on
Tuesday to block their demand that Verizon disclose whether it gave the
government’s spying program access to its customer data, documents
showed.
The U.S. government sued Maine officials on Tuesday to block their demand that Verizon disclose whether it gave the government’s spying program access to its customer data, documents showed.
The government’s civil suit, submitted by the U.S. Department of Justice to a district court in Maine, said the Maine public utilities officials’ attempts to obtain information on Verizon’s involvement with the National Security Agency (NSA) were “invalid”.
“The defendant state officers’ attempts to obtain such information are invalid under the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution and are preempted by the United States Constitution and various federal statutes,” the lawsuit said.
Verizon’s local subsidiaries were also named to prevent the company from responding to the Maine officials’ demands for information.
The federal government has also sued the New Jersey Attorney General and Missouri utility regulators for serving similar subpoenas for information to AT&T Inc.
The traditional political division over States Rights has been conservative vs. liberal. Using federal power to trample civil liberties and citizens’ privacy isn’t a con vs. lib question.
That’s why individuals and state governments generally associated with both sides of political life have entered this confrontation — against a neocon government that uses the same hackneyed slogan to justify every act: “We’re fighting a war against terror!”
Posted: Wed - August 23, 2006 at 06:16 AM