A lawsuit filed last August in Michigan challenging the legality of the Bush administration's domestic spying program has been rejected by a federal appeals court. Earlier today, the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals sent the lawsuit back to the US District Court in Detroit to be dismissed following a 2-1 ruling in the Circuit Court that the plaintiffs had no standing to sue because they did not prove that they were victims of government surveillance. The District Court had ruled that the program was unconstitutional and that it violated rights to privacy and free speech and violated the separation of powers.
Earlier this week, a lawsuit filed by the New York Times requesting documents pertaining to the domestic surveillance program was dismissed with judges ruling that government agencies could withhold the documents from the public in order to protect intelligence sources and methods.
