Appeals court sends wiretap case back to lower court

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Thursday declined to rule on whether lawsuits seeking to target President George W. Bush's warrantless wiretapping are covered by secrecy laws or can be challenged in court.

Citing the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday sent the case entitled "Hepting v AT&T" back to a district court that had heard an earlier case.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act governs wiretapping of foreign agents but also spells out ground rules for investigating U.S. citizens suspected of espionage.

The suit against AT&T alleged the telecom company violated federal privacy laws by helping the government wiretap U.S. Internet users. The 9th Circuit panel heard arguments last August but waited to publish its ruling until now.

Companies including AT&T Inc and Verizon Communications Inc face dozens of suits accusing them of improper participation in a warrantless wiretap program launched by Bush after the September 11 attacks.

Earlier this year, the Democratic-led Congress retroactively shielded phone companies from such suits, on the basis that immunity was needed to win future wiretap cooperation. Some Democrats and civil liberties advocates countered that companies should be held accountable for participating in a program critics say was illegal.

(Reporting by Duncan Martell and Eric Auchard, editing by Alan Elsner)