Germans take government to court over data retention - Summary

Karlsruhe, Germany - Germany's Constitutional Court plans to review in detail whether the government has the right to see the last six months of people's telephone-calling and e-mailing history, a top judge said Tuesday. Lawyers appeared before the court for 34,995 plaintiffs who object to a European Union anti-terrorism guideline, implemented in Germany last year, requiring telecoms companies to retain the data in case police need to see it.

The chief judge, Hans-Juergen Papier, said the case would lead to a ruling about the basic principles to apply. The federal court is expected to hand down its verdict early next year.

"The fundamental constitutional problem to consider will be whether data retention without cause for a period of six months, as EU law prescribes, can ever be in conformity with the right to secrecy of telecommunications," Papier said.

The law requires phone companies to keep call-detail records and email "to" and "from" addresses.

Cast in 60 separate objections, the case is the biggest mass suit ever taken to the court.

Among the plaintiffs is Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, who filed her case while she was an opposition Free Democratic Party (FDP) politician and is now justice minister in Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling coalition.

She has decided not to appear in court because this would be a conflict of interest. The Justice Ministry, which is defending the law as valid, sent other officials to Karlsruhe to make its case.

Meinhard Starostik, a lawyer for 34,900 plaintiffs, said, "if this is allowed, complete scrutiny of our daily lives will follow."

The Green party said it opposed data retention because it treated everyone in the country as technically a crime suspect.

The court has already issued temporary injunctions suspending some provisions of the data-retention law, ruling that police can only see the data when investigating serious crime or to prevent impending violence.