A US appeals court has ruled a lawsuit challenging the domestic spying program created by President George W. Bush after the September 11th attacks must be dismissed, in a decision based on narrow technical grounds.
The appeals court panel ruled by a 2-1 vote that the groups and individuals who brought the lawsuit, led by the American Civil Liberties Union, did not have the legal right to bring the challenge in the first place.
The Bush administration appealed, and the appeals court in Cincinnati set aside the decision.
The appeals court did not decide the merits of the lawsuit challenging the program as illegal and unconstitutional. It just held that the plaintiffs did not have standing or the legal right to sue.
The ACLU plaintiffs included lawyers who said they could not defend clients accused of terrorism because the government, under the wiretapping program, could listen into attorney-client conversations.
But the two judges in the majority opinion said the plaintiffs had failed to prove they were under surveillance.
"The plaintiffs allege that they have a 'well founded belief' that their overseas contacts are likely targets of the (National Security Agency) and that their conversations are being intercepted. The plaintiffs have no evidence, however, that the NSA has actually intercepted (or will actually intercept) any of their conversations," Judge Alice Batchelder said in the ruling.
In the previous ruling, a US district judge in Detroit ruled the program violated the Constitution and a 1978 law prohibiting surveillance of US citizens on US soil without the approval of the special surveillance court.
The two judges in the majority in today's ruling, Judge Julia Smith Gibbons and Judge Batchelder, are Republican appointees, named by Mr Bush and his father, respectively.
White House spokesman Tony Fratto said the administration was pleased by the ruling. "The court of appeals properly determined that the plaintiffs had failed to show their claims were entitled to review in federal court," he said.