It's up to Bush to decide whether the courts can review his illegal wiretapping programs?
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House appears to be leaning toward allowing a secret federal court to look at its controversial warrantless wiretaps, a reversal of previous policy, a top Republican senator said on Sunday.
Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, had been pressing the Bush administration to seek clearance from the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, court.
The act requires warrants from the court for intelligence-related eavesdropping inside the United States.
"I think there is an inclination (in the White House) to have it submitted to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance court, and that would be a big step forward for protection of constitutional rights and liberties," Specter, who had harshly criticized the program, told "Fox News Sunday."
What would be an even bigger step forward would be if Bush actually respected the seperation of powers and stopped acting like a bloody dictator.
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