Judge: Patriot Act snooping was accepted by phone companies

Verizon and other telephone companies didn't protest when a secret surveillance court demanded that they turn over records on all of their customers. In a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee leaders, Judge Reggie Walton of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) revealed that no telephone company or other service provider has ever resisted a court order under Section 215 of the Patriot Act.

Judge Walton acknowledged that in 2007 Yahoo fought a FISC order issued under a different law, the Protect America Act. The court received briefings from both sides and issued a classified decision in 2008. Recently, Google and Microsoft have filed motions with the FISC for permission to declassify how many users have been affected by the surveillance orders. Privacy advocates including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have also filed legal requests for more transparency. Judge Walton also explained details about how FISC judges review surveillance requests from the government. He said that although the court rarely rejects government requests, it often requires changes to the government's proposed surveillance.