TimKarr

This from the court's decision: "Given our disposition of the latter issue, we have no need to address Verizon’s additional contentions that the Order violates the First Amendment and constitutes an uncompensated taking. "

In other words the court never considered the argument. It is as if it were never made. However, their ability to "edit" the Internet is now alive and well.

Protecting our online privacy and fighting for our rights to connect and communicate are issues that seems to defy Washington's pattern of partisanship. It's a bipartisan coalition that in 2012 led the defeat of two copyright bills that threatened the open Internet. And it's a bipartisan coalition (StopWatching.US) that is behind the fight against online surveillance and privacy violations in 2013.

Joining the right with the left and center is essential to building a populist effort that can counter the out-of-touch, lobbyist-driven elite that dictate policy in Washington. This DC corporate spin on issues doesn't hold up against diverse grassroots efforts. Campaigns to protect the open Internet and user privacy are attracting strange political bedfellows, and this is our strength. It also has the potential to redefine politics as usual in Washington and shift power away from the political industrial complex toward well organized Internet users.

We agree!

Here's what they said about doing just that. It's on the record: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/timothy-karr/verizons-plan-to-break-th_b_3946907.html

Chris -- You're quoted in a recent AP story about the seemingly excessive fees that major phone companies charge to the government (and taxpayers) to tap communications.

http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_16037/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=m4M6yFpD

Given the industrial scale of NSA surveillance operations, these fees amount to tens of millions of dollars in revenue for AT&T and Verizon. By comparison the Internet companies identified as part of the PRISM program charge nothing or very little for handing over customer data. From what you know, are the phone company fees a reflection of their real costs to set up this surveillance? Or do they see the NSA program as yet another profit center?