WASHINGTON-The state of New Jersey and the federal government are in a public fight about whether five telecommunications companies turned over customer call records to the National Security Agency and in doing so violated New Jersey’s consumer-protection law, according to news reports.
The federal government sued Zulima Farber, the New Jersey attorney general, after she subpoenaed AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc., Qwest Communications International Inc., Sprint Nextel Corp. and Cingular Wireless L.L.C.
“What we were trying to determine was whether the phone companies in New Jersey had violated any law or any contractual obligations with their consumers by supplying information to some government entity, simply by request, and not by any court order or search warrant,” Farber told the New York Times.
The U.S. Department of Justice responded by saying that the nation’s security would be threatened if the telecos were forced to give the information to Farber.
The dispute pits a Democratic New Jersey state government against a Republican Justice Department.
The NSA phone-records operation, first reported by USA Today in May, collects calling information and looks for trends that would indicate terrorist activities. The USA Today story said records from AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth Corp. were obtained, but Qwest refused to participate. Verizon and BellSouth have refuted the story. BellSouth does not offer service in New Jersey.
Earlier this month, the Senate Judiciary Committee opted to not require the telcos to testify on the matter. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he decided not to issue subpoenas to the carriers after he learned from Vice President Richard Cheney that the telephone companies could not testify because the information was classified.
The Federal Communications Commission has said it will stay out of the issue. Last month, the FCC told Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), ranking member of the House telecommunications subcommittee, that it could not investigate the situation because of the classified nature of the NSA’s activities.
