anti-terror wiretaps ruled illegal

from guardian: The White House's so-called war on terror was dealt a blow yesterday when a federal judge ruled that a controversial wiretapping programme, authorised by President George Bush, was unconstitutional.

"It was never the intent of the framers [of the US constitution] to give the president such unfettered control, particularly where his actions blatantly disregard the parameters clearly enumerated in the Bill of Rights," wrote Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in her decision.

The decision came in the first court challenge to the government's wiretapping programme. The ruling represented "another nail in the coffin in the Bush administration's legal strategy in the war on terror," said Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the lawsuit on behalf of journalists, scholars and lawyers.