Appeals Court to Review AT&T Eavesdrop Case

November 10th, 2006

San Francisco, CA - President Bush's domestic eavesdropping program will be reviewed by a federal appeals court after a lower court refused to dismiss a lawsuit challenging it.

President Bush's domestic eavesdropping program will be reviewed by a federal appeals court after a lower court refused to dismiss a lawsuit challenging it.

The government is appealing the decision to keep the suit alive because the Bush administration believes that the case could expose government secrets and put the nation at risk. A judge ruled that warrantless eavesdropping has been so widely reported that is no danger of spilling secrets.

The decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals means the appeals court will decide whether the judge was correct to allow the case to proceed to trial.

The lawsuit was brought by the Electronic Frontier Foundation challenging President Bush's assertion that he can use his wartime powers to eavesdrop on Americans without a warrant. It accuses AT&T Inc. of illegally making communications on its system available to the National Security Agency (NSA) without warrants.