A clear violation of the federal law...class action lawsuit?

More juicy information from ThinkProgress that the Telcos could be liable for billions in damages were a class action lawsuit to be filed against them.

I have a feeling that Telco lobbyists are going to be frantically urging Congress to nullify this section retroactively. Maybe adding this to the new bills introduced by Specter and Graham.

Update (May 13): LA Times' David Savage examines the program's legality. "I would not want to be the general counsel of one of these phone companies," said Orin S. Kerr, a law professor at George Washington University and a former Justice Department lawyer who has worked on electronic surveillance.

The NY Times also quotes the same source:

Orin Kerr, a former federal prosecutor and assistant professor at George Washington University, said his reading of the relevant statutes put the phone companies at risk for at least $1,000 per person whose records they disclosed without a court order.

"This is not a happy day for the general counsels" of the phone companies, he said. "If you have a class action involving 10 million Americans, that's 10 million times $1,000 — that's 10 billion."

The New Jersey lawyers who filed the federal suit against Verizon in Manhattan yesterday, Bruce Afran and Carl Mayer, said they would consider filing suits against BellSouth and AT&T in other jurisdictions.

Personally, I would actually read a "violation" as each record of mine that was shared with the government. Which would include every call I made, which would be a monstrous sum and most certainly bankrupt the Telcos.

I wonder if Bush will decide to invoke the State Secrets Pivilege on these cases as well, and seek to dismiss them en masse.