Telecom Immunity

A contentious aspect of the debate over renewing the Protect America Act (PAA) concerns whether or not telephone companies that cooperated with the United States government's potentially-illegal domestic surveillance program should be immune from prosecution.

Fast Facts

1. The White House and Congress were at odds over the legislation for more than a year¹
2. Affected companies include AT&T, MCI, Verizon and Sprint
3. The NSA eavesdropped on telephone conversations after September 11th with telecom help
4. President George W. Bush said he would veto bills that did not protect certain companies¹

Arguments

Those who support retroactive telecom immunity claim that the phone companies were made to believe what they were doing was legal. Arguments against immunity say that the companies knew they were illegally violating the privacy of their customers.

Immunity Granted

On July 9, 2008, the U.S. Senate passed a new bill by a vote of 69-28 to amend the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The amendments grant immunity to telecom companies that participated in the post-9-11 eavesdropping campaigns and will likely result in the dismissal of more than 40 pending lawsuits against companies alleged of violating consumer privacy.²

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