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October 10, 2012

Supreme Court Rejects Bid to Hold Telecom Companies Accountable for Domestic Spying 
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The Supreme Court has rejected a challenge to a 2008 law granting
immunity to telecom companies that aided the George W. Bush
administration’s warrantless domestic spy program. Groups including
the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties
Union had brought the case, consolidating 33 different lawsuits against
the companies after a lower court ruled that the firms are protected by
congressionally mandated retroactive immunity. An appeals court upheld
the case's dismissal last year, and on Tuesday the Supreme Court
declined to hear it without comment. The ruling could mark the end of
legal attempts to hold the telecom firms accountable for the spying. In
a statement, the Electronic Frontier Foundation said: "After 11 years
and multiple congressional reports, public admissions and media
coverage, the only place that this program hasn't been seriously
considered is in the courts."

 

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