Class Action Lawsuit Filing Today – Man Versus Obama-PRISM-Verizon – Civil Liberty or National Defense on Steroids

A class action lawsuit is being brought against President Obama, and the companies tied to PRISM today in U.S.Disctrict Court of D.C. The case is being filed by “former Justice Department prosecutor Larry Klayman amended an existing lawsuit against Verizon and a slew of Obama administration officials Monday to make it the first class-action lawsuit in response to the publication of a secret court order instructing Verizon to hand over the phone records of millions of American customers on an "ongoing, daily basis."(USNews)

The companies listed in the suit, according to US News are: AOL, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, PalTalk, Skype, Yahoo! and YouTube.

The Administration and the NSA has continued to insist the culling of personal data, including emails, phone records, and video, et. al, is necessary for National Defense. The opponents suggest that the amount of data, specifically data of millions of American’s who could in no wise be suspected of terrorist activity has gone too far.

This is not the first suite that has been suggested. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said during a Sunday appearance on Fox News that he intends to file a class-action lawsuit against Verizon and the Internet companies over the surveillance programs, but it’s unclear how exactly he will proceed with the plans.”I’m going to be asking all the Internet providers and all of the phone companies: Ask your customers to join me in a class action lawsuit,” Paul said Sunday. “If we get 10 million Americans saying we don’t want our phone records looked at, then maybe someone will wake up and something will change in Washington.”(patdollard.com)

There has been, for years, no expectation of privacy when it comes to social networking sites, and even one’s cell phone, specifically if photo’s are shared, but, it was “friends “and the ability to share data that caused the issue – it was not the Federal Government overseeing every move a citizen (or not) might be making.

Although argued that this is justifiably constitutional under the law, the suits will challenge that assertion, and the courts will eventually decide. One might think that given the courts propensity to side both for and against the administration – this would be a case worth watching – slippery slope syndrome is all over this one.