Court upholds spying law, revives suits over NSA 'dragnet'
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today the federal government can be sued for the National Security Agency's warrantless "dragnet" of Americans' telephone conversations and e-mails. - But in a separate opinion, another three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based court upheld the 2008 law that gave telecommunications companies immunity for aiding the NSA in its hunt for terrorists. A USA TODAY investigation revealed in May 2006 that the NSA had been secretly collecting call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth. Operating out of a secret room in an AT&T office in San Francisco, the NSA compiled what was described as "the largest database ever assembled in the world."
Jason Ditz: Courts: Wiretap Victims Can Sue US, But Not Companies