Kevin Bankston Quotations

Based on the published reports and after a reasonable investigation, we think that discovery is going to show that AT&T has opened up its network to direct access by the NSA.

If state secrecy can prevent us from preserving the rights of millions upon millions of people, then there is a profound problem with the law.

Having a third party know all of the news you read is troublesome enough. It gives away key details about your beliefs, your opinions and your interests.

I think we are going to definitely have a fight on state-secret issues. I would also point out that the state-secret privilege has never come up in a case where the rights of so many have been at issue.

Our goal is to go after the people who are making the government's illegal surveillance possible. They could not do what they are doing without the help of companies like AT&T. We want to make it clear to AT&T that it is not in their legal or economic interests to violate the law whenever the president asks them to.

Our main goal is to stop this invasion of privacy, prevent it from occurring again and make sure AT&T and all the other carriers understand there are going to be legal and economic consequences when they fail to follow the law.

We are quite confident that discovery would reveal evidence proving our allegations correct.

We're alleging the violation of multiple federal statutes regarding wiretapping and privacy of communications records. We're saying that by giving direct access to key telecom facilities in the U.S., AT&T gave the NSA access to nearly all of the communications going over the AT&T network.

There are rules prohibiting wiretapping and when companies can release this kind of information. And since AT&T is acting as an agent of the government, we're also alleging constitutional violations of First- and Fourth-amendment rights to privacy.

The government could then demand these personal files with only a subpoena rather than the search warrant it would need to seize the same things from your home or business, and in many cases you wouldn't even be notified in time to challenge it.

As best we can tell, the NSA program is apparently the biggest fishing expedition ever devised, scanning millions of ordinary Americans' calls and e-mails for suspicious patterns.

AT&T is breaking the law and invading the privacy of its customers.

AT&T aided the NSA in intercepting all or a substantial part of communications going over their network. We don't exactly know what the NSA is doing with that data.

The NSA program is apparently the biggest fishing expedition ever devised, scanning millions of ordinary Americans' phone calls and emails for 'suspicious' patterns, and it's the collaboration of US telecom companies like AT&T that makes it possible.

I think now they're just realizing the scales are tilting against them, and (appeals are) going to be unavoidable.

But, it's at least wearing a grey hat.

Certainly this would be an important case. The fact that they may appeal this one would be of great note and I think would be a victory (for privacy advocates). Based on so many decisions against them, the Justice Department is finally bowing to pressure and submitting its theory to appellate scrutiny.

The key distinguishing factor between this and what has happened in the past is, it had always been retail surveillance -- the government targeted specific people and the telecom companies received warrants and allowed it. What we're alleging here is wholesale data surveillance.

This is a great victory for personal privacy rights; our cell phones reveal an enormous amount about us and can reveal everywhere we go, who we associate with and even what we believe in many ways. The government should need to get probable cause before being able to track that information.

The concern is that we are all carrying tracking devices around with us all day, so that every place we visit is logged.