Bush Administration Pushes Back on NSA Spying Lawsuits

A Justice Department lawyer last week asked a federal judge in San Francisco to throw out lawsuits filed by several states that would shed light on the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program and the role telecommunications companies played in helping the government spy on its own citizens without court approval. Five states -- Connecticut, Maine, Missouri, New Jersey and
Vermont -- want the records telephone companies handed over to the NSA as part of the secret Terrorist Surveillance Program the Bush administration rolled out shortly after 9/11. Consumers in those states argue that their privacy rights may have been violated if companies like Verizon, AT&T and Sprint Nextel turned over information on them without their consent.

Here's more on the DOJ position from the LA Times:

"During a 70-minute hearing Thursday, Deputy Assistant Atty. Gen. Carl
J. Nichols told U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker that the actions of the states clearly ran afoul of the federal government's blanket authority over foreign affairs, military and national security.

Nichols emphasized a section of the National Security Act of 1959 that states: "Nothing in this act or any other law … shall be construed to require the disclosure of the organization or any function of the
National Security Agency, of any information with respect to the activities thereof, or of the names, titles, salaries or number of persons employed by such agency."

The states argued that they're not trying to regulate intelligence gathering. They just merely have a right to investigate violations of state laws and protect the privacy of consumers.