[Commentary] Defenders of the Bush administration are crowing over a court decision holding that the government doesn't need warrants to monitor electronic communications between Americans and suspected terrorists abroad. Their jubilation is unjustified. The decision by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review -- handed down in August and made public in January -- is not a blank check for presidential power, nor does it legitimize the abrogations of personal liberty that the Bush administration embraced in its so-called war on terror. In fact, the ruling vindicates Congress' decision to establish safeguards for such surveillance -- a reform that never would have occurred if President Bush had succeeded in keeping the existence of his surveillance program from the public. This wasn't a vindication of the Bush administration's original program. Rather, the court upheld a 2007 law, the Protect America Act, that was enacted by Congress in response to the furor over the administration's original program. According to the court, its judges assessed the validity of the government's conduct "through the prism" of the law.
