As anticipated, the ACLU and several civil liberties organizations have filed an amicus (friend of court) brief in the review court considering the FISA Court's order in May, 2002 that rejected the Justice Department's May, 2002 guidelines allowing FISA warrants to be sought for physical and electronic searches and seizures when law enforcement as opposed to intelligence gathering was the primary purpose for the intrusion.

"Both the lower court and Congress have now said that Attorney General Ashcroft has gone too far in his interpretation of what the law allows," said Ann Beeson, Litigation Director of the Technology and Liberty Program of the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed the brief together with the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Center for National Security Studies, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the Open Society Institute."

"No one is questioning the government's authority to prosecute spies and terrorists," Beeson added, "but we do not need to waive the Constitution to do so."

"Under the proposed guidelines, "the Attorney General could suspend the ordinary requirements of the Fourth Amendment in order to listen in on phone calls, read e-mails, and conduct secret searches of Americans' homes and offices," said James X. Dempsey, Deputy Director of the Center for Democracy and Technology."

"As the Supreme Court said when it last considered wiretap limits, the brief noted, "The price of lawful public dissent must not be a read of subjection to an unchecked surveillance power."

"The groups urged the FISC Review Court to uphold the seven- judge panel of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which in May unanimously rejected the government's bid for expanded powers."

More details on the controversy can be found on several of our earlier posts, including this one.