A Judicial Ruling on Illegal Spying?

Is it too much to hope that a Court will actually get to rule on the legality (or rather, the blatant illegality) of former President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program?

I don't want to get my hopes up, but this is a good sign.

I'm also wondering if the Obama administration refused to back away from Bush's eggregious misuse of the "state secrets" privelege, not to cover for Bush, but to force the courts to rule on the scope of the privilege. It seems unthinkable that a federal appellate court would uphold the right of the executive to assert the state secrets privilege to stop entire lawsuits - and thereby preclude any and all judicial review of alleged executive misconduct. Perhaps Obama realized that if he simply withdrew the assertion of the priviledge, a subsequent President could simply reassert it. Perhaps he wanted a judicial ruling on the privilege's scope? I would have wanted such a ruling and am now thrilled that we've got one.

Am I looking for reasons to give Obama a break? Perhaps. I guess we all have a little bit of Polyanna like innocence floating around in our hearts.

Joe H.