AT&T is being sued in federal court for allegedly violating the Constitutional rights of Americans by enabling the National Security Agency to spy on citizens without court authorization.
In a class action suit filed Jan. 31, the Electronic Frontier Foundation accused AT&T of playing an instrumental role in “a secret and illegal government program to intercept and analyze vast quantities of Americans’ telephone and Internet communications.”
The EFF charged that the carrier violated customers’ First Amendment right to free speech and Fourth Amendment right to privacy and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, and also broke several wiretap and telecommunications laws.
The surveillance program, which was first revealed by The New York Times in December, was authorized by President Bush after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
“But the government did not act—and is not acting—alone,” the EFF alleged in the lawsuit filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. “The government requires the collaboration of major telecommunications companies to implement its unprecedented and illegal domestic spying program.”