Mainers Deserve Truth About Telephone/Internet Privacy
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: media@aclu.org
Today, the Maine Civil Liberties Union Foundation expressed its
opposition to efforts by the federal government to terminate the Maine PUC's
telephone customer investigation. The State of Maine, along with Missouri,
New Jersey, Connecticut, and Vermont, are fighting to keep alive their authority
to protect phone customer privacy through reasonable regulation. The Maine
case stems from a complaint brought on May 8, 2006 by James D. Cowie and other
Maine telephone customers asking the Maine Public Utilities Commission to
investigate whether their privacy rights were violated by Verizon.
"In America, we should feel free to have private conversations on
the telephone or share private information in e-mail," said Zachary Heiden,
Legal Director of the Maine Civil Liberties Union Foundation.
The
Maine Public Utilities Commission has asked that Verizon confirm under oath the
truthfulness of statements it made to the press. The federal government
sued the Maine Public Utilities Commission to prevent Verizon from giving that
testimony under oath. That case was later consolidated with dozens of
other cases challenging the NSA warrantless surveillance program before Judge
Vaughn Walker of the United States District Court for the Northern District of
California. The federal government has asked for summary judgment, arguing
that the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 pre-empts state authority to protect
privacy.
"The federal government here has taken an unreasonable
position," said Shenna Bellows, Executive Director of the Maine Civil Liberties
Union Foundation. "Maine's action here will not in any way impinge upon
national security efforts."
At issue is Section 803 of the FISA
Amendments Act of 2008 which states "No state shall conduct an investigation
into an electronic communication service provider's alleged assistance to an
element of the intelligence community or require through regulation or any other
means the disclosure of information about an electronic communication service
provider's alleged assistance to an element of the intelligence
community."
Maine was the first state to file a customer complaint
with the Public Utilities Commission when 21 Mainers led by James Cowie filed a
complaint on May 8. ACLU affiliates in 20 states subsequently petitioned
their local public utilities commissions or attorneys general to open
investigations of the phone companies. The PUC complaints are part of a
broader ACLU campaign to end illegal government spying on millions of
Americans.
Revelations by two former military intercept operators
who worked at the giant National Security Agency, Adrienne Kinne and David
Murfee Faulk, revealed to ABC News in October of 2008 that the NSA was
monitoring hundreds of personal calls of US servicemen and women in Iraq
and Afghanistan as well as journalists and American aid workers overseas.