Citing national security concerns, the federal government has sued Missouri officials for demanding that AT&T disclose whether it provided customer data for the government's domestic surveillance program. Snip from Reuters report:
Missouri Public Service Commissioners Robert Clayton and Steve Gaw, state utility regulators, had served subpoenas to AT&T Missouri and its affiliates in June amid speculation over their involvement with the National Security Agency. The government's civil suit, submitted by the U.S. Department of Justice to a district court in Missouri, said the state officials' attempts to obtain the information from AT&T and its affiliates were invalid.
And in related news: again citing national security concerns, a federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit aimed at blocking AT&T from surrendering customer telephone records to the government.
"The court is persuaded that requiring AT&T to confirm or deny whether it has disclosed large quantities of telephone records to the federal government could give adversaries of this country valuable insight into the government's intelligence activities," U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly said.
Link. Via slashdot, where a poster explains, "Not to be confused with the EFF case, this case was filed by the ACLU on behalf of author Studs Terkel and other activists who argued that their constitutional rights had been violated by the actions of AT&T and the NSA."
