I’m traveling for work, so posting is light, but I wanted to be sure you saw these posts from Marcy Wheeler on two cases regarding FISA and illegal wiretapping that are currently under US District Court Judge Vaughn Walker’s consideration.

Vaughn Walker Will Review the al-Haramain Document

Oops! They Pissed Off Judge Walker Before He Finalizes Immunity

The al-Haramain Dates

The short version is that it looks likely that there may now be judicial review of Bush’s illegal domestic wiretapping program, something that the Bush Administration has fought fervently for years. Moreover, because of some of the dates covered in the al-Haramain case, it’s possible for the program to broadly be considered ok, while even still finding Bush at times acted without legal authorization to use it. That is, there is at least one point in time — March 11, 2004 — when Bush lacked Attorney General approval for the domestic wiretapping program. If he did anything then — and the al-Haramain documents charge that he did — then he still violated the law. I’ll be anxiously watching for Judge Walker’s decisions in these cases.