Supreme Court Won't Hear Wiretapping Case

The Supreme Court has dismissed the ACLU's legal challenge of President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program, reports the Los Angeles Times. The ACLU had said that by issuing a secret order that allowed wiretapping without abiding by a 1978 law, the president was directly disobeying US law. The court today issued a one-line order declining to hear the suit.

With Congress and the administration battling over wiretapping rules, the court may have decided not to interfere. "The president is bound by the laws that Congress enacts. He may disagree with those laws, but he may not disobey them," the ACLU said in its appeal. Bush had argued that the Constitution requires the president to work in the national interest, even when his actions are at odds with a particular law. (More US Supreme Court stories.)