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Report - "Government Access to Phone Calling Activity and Related Records: Legal Authorities"
ljk — (archived)

CRS VIEWS GOVERNMENT ACCESS TO PHONE RECORDS

The government's acquisition of telephone records of tens of
millions of Americans, as reported last week in USA Today,
raises a host of thorny legal issues. In a new report, the
Congressional Research Service performed a preliminary
assessment of those issues.

"The factual information available in the public domain with
respect to any such alleged program is limited and in some
instances inconsistent," the CRS authors caution, "and the
application, if at all, of any possibly relevant statutory
provisions to any such program is likely to be a very fact
specific inquiry."

Having said that, the CRS explains that there are several
statutes that may be pertinent and that could conceivably entail
civil or criminal penalties for telephone companies that provide
information to the government without statutory authorization.

"This [CRS] report ...summarize[s] statutory authorities
regarding access by the Government, for either foreign
intelligence or law enforcement purposes, to information related
to telephone calling patterns or practices. Where pertinent, we
will also discuss statutory prohibitions against accessing or
disclosing such information, along with relevant exceptions to
those prohibitions."

The Congressional Research Service does not make its products
directly available to the public. But a copy of the latest
report was obtained by Secrecy News.

See "Government Access to Phone Calling Activity and Related
Records: Legal Authorities," May 17, 2006:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/intel/RL33424.pdf

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