Justice Department Sues New Jersey over NSA Data

June 15, 2006 10:07 AM

Jason Ryan Reports:

The Justice Department has sued the state of New Jersey in a lawsuit against State Attorney General Zulima Farber and her deputy Cathleen O'Donnell for their efforts to subpoena telephone companies to obtain NSA call history data.

The suit, filed late Wednesday in federal court in Trenton, relates to the State Attorney General sending subpoenas to the phone companies in order to obtain records and documents relating to the data provided to the NSA. The Justice suit seeks an injunction from the U.S. District Court in Trenton to ensure that the subpoenas from the Attorney General are not enforced. Responses to the subpoenas are due by today.

The Justice Department suit notes that the New Jersey subpoenas "seek disclosure of matters with respect to which the Director of National Intelligence has determined that disclosure…would improperly reveal intelligence sources and methods."

"The United States will be irreparably harmed if the carrier defendants are permitted or are required to disclose sensitive and classified information to the defendants in response to the subpoenas," the suit says.

The Justice Department says states lack the authority to collect information relating to the NSA program and say that they do not have the authority to have the phone carriers comply.

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June 15, 2006 in NSA: Wiretapping | Permalink | User Comments (2)

User Comments

What an amusing attempt by Alberto Gonzales to cover for his "moron" in the "whitewash house". Interesting how they jump to mislead and offer bogus reasons to stop a democratic state from protecting the constitution. I live in a republican state(NC) and love to watch my democratic governor and his democratic attorney general talk and act or fail to act when in power as dems in a repub state. I recently wrote to my state attorney general about pharmeceutical pricing games and strange goings on at the pharmacy level but received no reply. I wrote again demanding a reply and got a non committal no answer nothing from the Attorney Generals division of "obfuscation" perhaps. Alberto Gonzales can count on the NC Attorney Generals Office to jump and jump high to his every whim. I am also amused to watch and listen to a Democratic Senator like Landrieu in a republican state like LA, talk and walk that which is required for her to appease her opposing party state so that they allow her to stay on. Very Interesting as they say...

Posted by: frodaddy | Jun 15, 2006 11:11:42 AM

I highly doubt the NJ AG was trying to protect the consitution, more like a play in politics to try to embrass the administration in someway. All they are doing is weakening the country to further attacks.

In case no one noticed, there hasn't been one attack in the United States since 9/11.

If the terrorist destroy everything because you make us blind to them, what good is the consitution then?

Posted by: sonklam | Jul 5, 2006 7:37:02 PM

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