Jun 9, 2006 11:07 am US/Pacific
Appeals Court Sides With Bush On Wiretap Issue
WASHINGTON (AP) ―
A divided federal appeals court Friday sided with the Bush administration over rules that make it easier for police and the FBI to wiretap Internet phone calls.
In a 2-1 ruling, the court said the Federal Communications was correct when it decided that providers of Internet phone service and broadband services have legal obligations similar to those of telephone companies.
The FCC was responding to Justice Department complaints that companies must ensure their equipment using new technologies can accommodate police wiretaps under the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, known as CALEA.
"We cannot set aside the commission's reasonable interpretation of the act in favor of an alternatively plausible or an even better one," wrote appeals court judge David Sentelle.
Judge Harry Edwards said the law contains an exemption for information services and that the FCC "has altogether gutted" it.
In determining that broadband Internet providers are subject to the act just as telecommunications carriers are, the FCC "apparently forgot to read the words of the statute," Edwards wrote in dissent.
Education groups challenged the FCC rules because they said the requirements would impose burdensome new costs on private university networks. They argued that broadband Internet access is an information service falling completely beyond the reach of CALEA.
FCC chairman Kevin Martin said the decision ensures that law enforcement's ability to conduct lawful court-ordered electronic surveillance will keep pace with new technology.
Sentelle is an appointee of President Reagan, Judge Janice Rogers Brown, who sided with Sentelle, is an appointee of President George W. Bush. Edwards was appointed by President Carter.
The education groups focused on a Supreme Court case which upheld the FCC's classification of broadband as an integrated information service under the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Therefore, the education groups said, broadband providers must fall within the exemption for information services in CALEA.
But the appeals court said the education groups' challenge "falls apart" because CALEA and the Telecom act are different laws, adding that the Supreme Court did not find that broadband Internet access is exclusively an information service.
(© 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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