The US government can continue to use its warrantless domestic wiretap program pending the Justice Department's appeal of a federal judge's ruling outlawing the program, a US Appeals Court in Cincinnati ruled today.
The ruling overturned US District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor's decision last week to deny a lengthy stay in the case, which is expected to end up with the US Supreme Court.
In August, Taylor ruled that the National Security Agency's five-year-old surveillance program, implemented as part of the government's war on terrorism, violates the civil rights of Americans.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed the suit in March on behalf of scholars, attorneys, journalists and non-profit groups that regularly communicate with people in the Middle East.