General Ashcroft must be plenty happy today. The one-sided, secret FISA Appeals court has reversed the lower FISA court's ruling that required separation of the intelligence and crime prosecuting arms of the Justice Department, and stricter requirements on eavesdropping warrants in cases under criminal investigation.

The changes Ashcroft claimed were allowed under the Patriot Act permit wiretaps when collecting information about foreign spies or terrorists is "a significant purpose," rather than "the purpose," of an investigation. The objection to this position is that it allows the government to "use the change as a loophole to employ espionage wiretaps in common criminal investigations."

We explained what the fuss is all about here.

The full opinion is here. The lower court's opinion is here.

We have written a lot on this case and the issues involved. You can read them here, here, here and here

The ACLU also has comprehensive coverage on the issue.