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ACLU-NJ to Local Officials: Investigate Phone Companies' Cooperation with NSA

For Immediate Release
May 24, 2006

NEWARK, N.J. -- Responding to reports that phone companies are turning over private details about Americans' telephone calls to the National Security Agency, the American Civil Liberties Union today launched a nationwide initiative to end illegal government spying.

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey and affiliates in 19 other states today filed complaints with public utility commissions or sent letters to state Attorneys General and other officials demanding investigations into whether local telecommunications companies allowed the National Security Agency (NSA) to spy on their customers.

"Government spying on everyday Americans is an illegal and unAmerican privacy violation and Americans need to know the truth," said Deborah Jacobs, Executive Director of the ACLU-NJ, which today called on the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to open an investigation to determine whether AT&T or Verizon has violated any New Jersey law or any rule of the Board of Public Utilities.

"We're not talking about obstructing legitimate law enforcement activities; this is about standing up for the fundamental privacy and due process rights of people whose telephone records have been released to the government without a warrant, notice or consent," Jacobs said. "People who have nothing to hide -- who may only have made calls to a psychiatrist, an AIDS testing center, a suicide hotline or an old boyfriend -- don't want government listening in on their personal business."

In its Letter to the Board of Public Utilities (2mb PDF), the ACLU-NJ noted that the New Jersey Constitution protects consumer phone records from disclosure. Through its alleged disclosure of the details of private phone calls, Verizon and AT&T may have violated their own customer service agreements. If the allegations against Verizon and AT&T are true, then the companies also have violated New Jersey's Consumer Fraud Act by engaging in deception and misrepresentation, the ACLU-NJ letter said.

In addition to the ACLU-NJ, actions were filed today by ACLU affiliates in Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia and Washington. Other ACLU affiliates are expected to file additional letters and complaints in the coming weeks.

The National ACLU today also sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission urging the agency to reconsider its refusal to investigate reports that at least three major telecommunications companies -- AT&T, BellSouth and Verizon -- cooperated with the NSA in an effort to collect calling information and call patterns on every American.

In its letter, the ACLU refuted the agency's assertion -- made public late yesterday -- that the classified nature of NSA activities renders it "unable" to investigate potential wrongdoing. The ACLU noted that the government is publicly defending the program, so there is no way that all the details about it are "state secrets" or involve classified information. The letter also pointed out that the government has a recent history of overclassifying information and conveniently claiming that any evidence of embarrassing or illegal actions are "state secrets."

"We cannot sit by while the government and the phone companies collude in this massive, illegal and fundamentally un-American invasion of our privacy," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. "And unfortunately, we cannot wait for Congress to act. The ACLU is mobilizing its members and supporters nationwide to demand investigations into this shocking breach of trust. And we are asking the FCC to use its authority to uncover the facts about how far the president's illegal spying has gone. The American people want answers."

As part of its nationwide campaign, the ACLU today is running full-page advertisements in The New York Times and half a dozen major daily newspapers, with the headline: "If You've Used a Telephone in the Last Five Years, Read This." The advertisement provides a link to www.aclu.org/dontspy, where individuals can add their names to the public record in the ACLU's complaints with public utility commissions and send e-mails to the FCC urging that it investigate the matter.

"We are seeking to create the perfect storm to end illegal NSA spying," said Barry Steinhardt, director of the ACLU's Technology and Liberty Program.

When the NSA spying program was initially uncovered last December, the ACLU was one of the first organizations to bring a legal challenge, acting on behalf of a prominent and politically diverse group of journalists, scholars and lawyers. That challenge will be heard before Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit on Monday, June 12; it will be the first-ever hearing on the legality of NSA spying since the program was disclosed.

More information on the case is online at http://www.aclu.org/nsaspying

The ACLU's FCC letter, today's full-page advertisement and other background is online at http://www.aclu.org/dontspy