April 14, 2006 | AT&T Loses A Customer Over NSA Lawsuit

AT&T has lost at least one customer due to the class action lawsuit filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation accusing the telecom giant of wiretapping the Internet on behalf of the National Security Agency (NSA).

That customer? Judge Vaughn Walker, the San Francisco District Chief Judge who is assigned to the case.

In an order Walker released today, the judge told the parties that he was an AT&T phone customer when the case was assigned to him, so he switched telecom providers to avoid a conflict of interest. Walker did not say what company he switched to, or if he got a better long distance rate.

Being a former AT&T customer also makes him a potential member of the class suing AT&T, so he foreswore any money he might be entitled to.

Walker is not recusing himself, however, and cited a number of cases supporting his position. He also mentions that if he had to do so, so too would almost every judge in the district since it's highly likely that some member of every judge's family was an AT&T subscriber. Walker is giving both AT&T and the EFF a week to file briefs agreeing or disagreeing (or in AT&T's case, to offer him free conference calling if he comes back into the fold). After that, Walker says he will stat to rule on the flurry of motions filed this week.

Full recusal order here. (.pdf)

Posted by Ryan Singel at April 14, 2006 03:55 PM

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