Briefs

By Ryan Singel, August 30, 2007, Wired

Verizon and its government allies told a federal court judge Thursday that national security requires the dismissal of lawsuit accusing the phone provider of violating federal privacy laws by allegedly providing millions of phone records to a secret anti-terrorism data-mining program. Verizon also argues that the nation's telephone privacy laws interferes with the company's free speech rights.

Justice Department special counsel Anthony Coppolino argued that since the government has not confirmed or denied data mining call records, the program is a secret and the court needed to defer to the executive branch.

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