MCLU to Feds: "Keep Maine case in Maine"
Lawsuits Involving Public Utility Commissions Should Remain in States, Group Argues

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 25, 2007

Miami- The Maine Civil Liberties Union will argue today before a federal panel that legal actions concerning phone customer privacy should stay in the states where they originated.  Activists in five states brought actions before local Public Utility Commissions seeking protection of privacy rights. Those actions have resulted in lawsuits, and today the Federal Court's Multidistrict Litigation Panel will hear the government argue that all those cases should be consolidated in a single court in California.

“The lawsuit against the Maine PUC should be kept in Maine where the challenge was filed and where the affected population lives,” said Zachary Heiden, staff attorney with the MCLU. “The government is seeking to evade responsibility by having disparate lawsuits in individual states merged and moved across the country. Mainers have the right to find out whether their personal privacy has been violated.”

In an effort to expose the depth of the NSA’s unlawful wiretapping, ACLU affiliates worked with activists in 24 states to initiate investigations by regulators. In Maine, Connecticut, Vermont and Missouri, the US government has sought to prevent the PUCs from investigating the program. The government also filed a separate lawsuit in New Jersey to stop subpoenas about the program. The phone companies, in conjunction with the federal government, have moved to consolidate and transfer the cases to California.

The ACLU continues to pursue complaints against PUCs in numerous other states seeking further investigations as more information about the illegal program comes to light through Congressional hearings and other developments.

Just last week, the Bush administration conceded that the judicial branch has a role in overseeing surveillance by the NSA. However, the ACLU expressed skepticism that the changes announced by the administration comply with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the Constitution.

The ACLU noted that the Bush administration has not yet addressed any data mining concerns raised by the NSA’s warrantless program.

“Telecommunications companies in America have an extraordinary amount of data on the average person,” said Barry Steinhardt, Director of the ACLU's Technology and Liberty Project.

In a case filed on behalf of journalists, lawyers and academics, the ACLU obtained an injunction requiring the president to shut down the illegal NSA spying program. In the first and so far the only court opinion on the legality of the warrantless wiretap program, a district court declared the program unconstitutional and called for an immediate halt to this abuse of presidential power.

The government has appealed the lower court's decision and there will be a hearing before Judges Alice Batchelder, Ronald Gilman and Julia Gibbons of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals on January 31 in Cincinnati, OH. Ann Beeson, Associate Legal Director of the ACLU, will argue on behalf of the organization.

More information is available at:
www.aclu.org/nsaspying

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