A U.S. appeals court ordered the dismissal Friday of a lawsuit challenging President George W. Bush's domestic spying program, saying the plaintiffs had no standing to sue.Posted on 08 July 2007 @ 13:18 GMTThe ruling marks a legal victory for Bush, who last month suffered a pair of court defeats related to his anti-terror efforts. Those rulings barred the administration from locking up civilians indefinitely as enemy combatants, and another blocking the prosecution of two Guantanamo detainees.
The 2-1 ruling by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel in Cincinnati vacated a 2006 order by a federal judge in Detroit, who found that the post-Sept. 11 warrantless surveillance aimed at uncovering terrorist activity violated constitutional rights to privacy and free speech and the separation of powers.
U.S. Circuit Judge Julia Smith Gibbons, one of the two Republican appointees who ruled against the plaintiffs, said they failed to show they were subject to the surveillance.
The court ruling means that if Bush restarts the program, ordinary Americans will have a much harder time challenging it in court. The court ruled that, unless people can prove they're being eavesdropped on, they will have a hard time suing.