The remaining two defendants in last year's Portland, Oregon terror case have pleaded guilty in federal court and agreed to spend 18 years in federal prison. The two pleaded guilty to conspiring to levy war against the U.S. Other co-defendants ,who had pleaded guilty earlier, agreed to testify against them.

Had the case not been resolved by guilty pleas, a hearing would have been held on the legality of evidence seized under provisions of the Patriot Act. The ACLU and National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) filed a Friend of Court brief in the case.

Specifically, the ACLU, joined by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, says the Justice Department's use of a secret court to get authority for electronic eavesdropping violates constitutional protections of privacy and free speech and against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Defense lawyers in the Portland case have challenged the government's use of secret court-approved wiretaps, the collection of e-mail messages and the planting of microphones in the home of one of the suspects. They claim the covert surveillance approved by a special court under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, should not have been granted in the case because the defendants are not agents of foreign powers, spies or terrorists, as defined in the act.

We would have liked to have seen that motion litigated.