EFF: Appeals Court Battle Over NSA Surveillance on August 15

Electronic Frontier Foundation Media Release

For Immediate Release: Thursday, August 09, 2007

Contact:

Rebecca Jeschke
   Media Coordinator
   Electronic Frontier Foundation
   press@eff.org
   +1 415 436-9333 x125

Cindy Cohn
   Legal Director
   Electronic Frontier Foundation
   cindy@eff.org
   +1 415 436-9333 x108 (office), +1 415 307-2148 (cell)

Lisa Jaskol
   Attorney for the Al-Haramain plaintiffs
   ljaskol@earthlink.net
   +1 213-637-3851 (office), +1 323-630-3038 (cell)


Appeals Court Battle Over NSA Surveillance on August 15

Government Aims to Block Accountability for Illegal Spying
on Americans

San Francisco - In the wake of Congress approving a
dramatic expansion of U.S. warrantless wiretapping powers,
the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments
on the future of two critical lawsuits over illegal
surveillance of Americans.  The hearing is set for August
15, at 2 p.m. in San Francisco.

The government is fighting to get the cases thrown out of
court, contending that the litigation jeopardizes state
secrets.  The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is
representing the plaintiffs in Hepting v. AT&T, which
accuses the telecom giant of collaborating with the
National Security Agency (NSA) in illegal electronic
surveillance of millions of AT&T's customers. The court
will also hear the arguments on the future of Al-Haramain
Islamic Foundation v. Bush, a case alleging that the
government illegally wiretapped calls between the charity
and its lawyers.

"At issue here is whether the courts have any meaningful
role to play in protecting Americans' privacy from
Executive branch abuses of its surveillance powers," said
EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn.  "If the claim of 'state
secrets' is allowed to shut down litigation, then the
courts will never be able to exercise their Constitutional
duty to hold the White House accountable for illegal and
even unconstitutional abuses of power."

The court has scheduled one hour of arguments for Hepting
v. AT&T, and 40 minutes for Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation
v. Bush.  Because of the large number of attendees expected
at Wednesday's hearing, the court will provide an overflow
room with audio and video of the proceedings for spectators
who cannot get a seat in the courtroom itself.

For more information about attending the hearing, contact
press@eff.org.

WHAT:
Hepting v. AT&T
Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation v. Bush

WHEN:
2 p.m.
Wednesday, August 15

WHERE:
9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Courtroom 1, 3rd Floor
95 Seventh Street
San Francisco, CA 94103

For more on EFF's case against AT&T:
http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/att/

For this release:
http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2007_08.php#005398

About EFF

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading civil
liberties organization working to protect rights in the
digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF actively encourages and
challenges industry and government to support free
expression and privacy online. EFF is a member-supported
organization and maintains one of the most linked-to
websites in the world at http://www.eff.org/


     -end-

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