News - Verizon tells court they were exercising 1st amendment rights in NSA spying scandal.

This will make your head spin. Verizon is claiming that the lawsuit filed against the company for helping the government spy on it's citizens, should be dropped because they were merely exercising their first amendment rights.

The gravamen of plaintiffs records claims is that defendants allegedly communicated information about them to the government namely, that a call was
placed from a certain telephone number to another number. Communicating such
factual information to the government would be speech that is fully protected by the First Amendment.

When the country is engaged in an armed conflict with foreign enemies, that right applies to communicating information that may be useful in defending the country from expected attacks. Based on plaintiffs own allegations, defendants right to communicate such information to the government is fully protected by the Free Speech and Petition Clauses of the First Amendment, and is a privilege and immunity that arises directly under the federal Constitution.

We've seen far too many examples of ideas and words being redefined to suit the wants and needs of the powers that be over the last 6 years but this one is an award winner. I honestly don't know where to begin. This is a prime example of why I absolutely despise the mega-corporations in this country. It's just mind boggling to think that this defense could work for them.

If this doesn't work in the court, the President is ready to push a bill in which there is a section that would grant all telecommunications companies retroactive immunity from any and all legal action by the American public in relation to their efforts to assist the government in spying on us.