NSA Suits To Be Consolidated?

A federal judicial panel on multijurisdictional lawsuits heard arguments today on whether to consolidate the myriad lawsuits filed against the government and against the country's largest telecoms in the wake of revelations about widespread warrantless surveillance of Americans.

The Department of Justice wants all the suits consolidated and brought to Washington, D.C., while Electronic Frontier Foundation lawyer Cindy Cohn urged the panel to consolidate the class-action cases to Judge Vaughn Walker in San Francisco, who has already read classified briefs on the program and rebuffed the government's attempt to dismiss the EFF's suit against AT&T on the grounds of national security, according to Reuters's Andrew Stern.

U.S. Deputy Assistant Attorney General Carl Nichols said consolidating the case will let the government ask that the suits be dismissed collectively because they might disclose secrets that could jeopardize national security.

With suits in numerous courts, "we are faced with pressing the state secrets privilege around the country," Nichols told the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation.

He said that would be time-consuming and that "transporting these materials through airports ... increases the risk of disclosure." The panel is expected to render a decision within three to six weeks.

No, really, he argued that an FBI agent was going to lose the handcuffed suitcase in the airport...

Photo: Ryan Junell

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