The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco unanimously says a 2008 law granting telecommunications companies legal immunity for helping the National Security Agency with an eavesdropping program is constitutional.
Congress amended the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, to include protection from legal liability for telecommunications companies that allegedly helped the U.S. spy on Americans without warrants.
The appeal consolidated 33 cases filed against various telecom companies, including AT&T, Sprint Nextel and Verizon Communications Inc. filed on behalf of those companies' consumers.
The plaintiffs, represented by lawyers from the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union, accuse the companies of violating the law and the privacy of its customers by collaborating with NSA on intelligence gathering.
"I'm very disappointed. I think the court reaches to try to put lipstick on a pig here," said Cindy Cohn, legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who argued the case before the panel. "I think what Congress did was an abdication of its duty to protect people from illegal surveillance."