The Star Chamber

A little-known panel of judges that meets in secret inside a windowless room to issue search warrants in espionage and terrorism cases has issued an extraordinary opinion chastising the federal government for providing false information to the court and misusing the law in more than 75 cases.

The FISA Court — a panel of judges that oversees the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act — has moved to rein in Attorney General John Ashcroft’s attempts to use the looser laws governing intelligence investigations as a back-door method of pursuing ordinary criminal investigations. Ashcroft believes he can remove the barrier between the two types of cases thereby allowing police and prosecutors to use information garnered in searches and surveillance that would normally be barred by the Bill of Rights. Everything from your library preferences to your phone conversations to your magazine subscriptions would be an open book to the government in the attorney general's view.

In its opinion — all the more extraordinary because it has never before turned down a request by the government — the FISA court has drawn the line. Read the original opinion. And stayed tuned for the results of Ashcroft’s appeal.