A federal judge ruled yesterday that the N.S.A.'s covert wiretap program targeting who knows how many US citizens without court approval was (and is!) illegal. Of fucking course it is, come on. But...but...but what if Obama does it?

A Justice Department spokeswoman, Tracy Schmaler, noted that the Obama administration had overhauled the department's procedures for invoking the state-secrets privilege, requiring senior officials to personally approve any assertion before lawyers could make it in court. She said that approach would ensure that the privilege was invoked only when "absolutely necessary to protect national security."

No, that's still illegal, said the judge. Of course, since we have no real clue what the fuck the NSA does all day, we'll just have to trust them to stop.
[NYT. Pic: AP]