Tapping into AT&T

Ideally, the lawsuit will stop AT&T from cooperating in the NSA program, or at least prod it to put up more resistance. There is no need or excuse for warrantless surveillance in America, especially given the accelerated procedures Congress established for obtaining such warrants. Indeed, the court that Congress created with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is notoriously accommodating to such requests. In addition, the administration's assertion that it can conduct whatever spying operation it pleases during the unrelenting war on terrorism is an affront to Americans' privacy and due-process rights.

More practically, the lawsuit may also reveal how the spying program works and what types of information it collects. But the administration views such details as sensitive national security secrets, and it is likely the government will try to have the lawsuit thrown out before any such disclosures are made.

In the mid-1970s, the late Sen. Frank Church, an Idaho Democrat, led a Senate investigation into domestic spying and other abuses of power by the NSA and federal agencies. By interviewing executives from telecommunications companies, his investigators gained critical details about the government's snooping. Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee could learn from the Church committee's boldness.