Hollywood, FL conservative files suit to stop mass surveillance by gov't [View All]

[seafan]

Hollywood, Florida conservative files suit to stop mass surveillance by government

By John Holland
June 28, 2006

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The Hollywood woman (Theresa Fortnash) has filed a lawsuit in Miami seeking to stop the government from gathering records on virtually every telephone call made within the United States. She wants a federal judge to block AT&T from handing phone logs to the federal government, even though President Bush says the program is critical to national security.
"I know people are going to say I'm hurting our country, and that's why I thought a long, long time before doing this,'' said Fortnash, a computer database designer and mother of a 10-year-old daughter. "But I love my country, and this program goes against everything our country is about and everything my party has been about."

At the heart of Fortnash's lawsuit is the National Security Agency's attempt to build a giant database of telephone calls made by Americans, hoping to find patterns that will root out terrorists. Fortnash is the first to file suit in Florida, her lawyer said, joining a list of plaintiffs around the country, including the American Civil Liberties Union, who say phone companies are illegally sharing the information with the federal government.

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Her lawsuit, which is seeking class action status, says the government and AT&T have ignored existing laws that allow for phone records to be turned over when a warrant or subpoena is issued.
"A government that doesn't abide by its own laws is a government that's out of control,'' said Fortnash's attorney John Gillespie, of the law firm Broad and Cassel.

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"The courts have been deferring to the Administration repeatedly when it comes to national security, but every time you exert a privilege like state secrets, it makes it harder for courts to get at the truth,'' said Clark. "The privilege is an important one, but it also can have the effect of immunizing a government if it should engage in unconstitutional or even illegal acts.''

Fortnash said she filed the suit because of that potential for abuse.

"I'm extremely passionate about this, because I work with data and build databases every day, so I know how much the federal government can do with a person's telephone information,'' Fortnash said. "I've been a Republican my whole life, and that's why I think it bothers me more than it would any liberal Democrat, because this goes against everything I've ever believed in."