SAN FRANCISCO – Seventeen lawsuits against U.S. telephone companies for allegedly unlawfully aiding a government spy program have been consolidated in a California federal court, according to a ruling made public Thursday.

The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation sent the class action lawsuits filed in 13 district courts across the country to the Northern District of California before Judge Vaughn Walker, who has already been hearing one of the cases, CNET News.Com reported.

“We conclude that the Northern District of California is an appropriate transferee forum in this docket because the district is where the first filed and significantly more advanced action is pending before a judge already well versed in the issues presented by the litigation,” the panel said in an Aug. 9 order.

The government and telephone companies had sought to move the cases to a Washington, D.C., court while a plaintiff’s attorney asked the California judge handle the cases.

Walker, whose court is in San Francisco, last month rejected a request from U.S. government officials to dismiss one lawsuit against AT&T, but earlier this week agreed to stay the proceedings until an appeals court could rule on that decision and for the judicial panel to rule on where the cases would go.

USA Today in May reported that AT&T, BellSouth and Verizon Communications had supplied customer call records to the National Security Agency for an anti- terrorism program, sparking protests and class action lawsuits from privacy advocates.

In June, the newspaper said some lawmakers had confirmed that AT&T did participate in the domestic spying program. But the paper backed off its earlier report that BellSouth and Verizon were also involved, saying its sources could not document a relationship between the companies and the NSA.

BellSouth has denied turning over records or providing access to the NSA, while Verizon has said it does not provide the government unfettered access to customer records. AT&T has said it helps when asked by the government, but only within the law.

The government has intervened in several cases asserting a “military and state secrets privilege” to argue that they should be thrown out.

A Justice Department spokesman had no comment while representatives for AT&T, BellSouth and Verizon all declined to comment.