About time sanity on a non-issue returned:

“CINCINNATI — A divided federal appeals court rejected a lawsuit Friday challenging President Bush’s domestic spying program without ruling on the issue of whether warrantless wiretapping is legal.

In a 2-1 decision with Republican-appointed judges in the majority, a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the plaintiffs had no standing to sue because they couldn’t prove their communications had been monitored by the government.

The decision underscored the difficulty of challenging the anti-terrorism program in court because its secret nature prevents plaintiffs from obtaining surveillance information. The National Security Agency had refused to turn over information about the warrantless wiretapping that would have bolstered the court case.

“This is a Catch-22,” said Steven R. Shapiro, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed the lawsuit. “I think what in effect they’re saying is that we can’t tell you whether you have been wiretapped because that’s a secret. And unless you know you’ve been wiretapped, you can’t challenge that program.”

The appeals court vacated a 2006 order by a lower court in Detroit, which had concluded that the warrantless surveillance authorized after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks was unconstitutional.

President Bush authorized warrantless monitoring of international telephone calls and e-mails to or from the United States when one party is believed to be a terrorist or to have terrorist ties. The government has kept details confidential, saying the case involved state secrets whose disclosure would threaten national security.

While sidestepping the question of constitutionality, Judge Alice M. Batchelder and Judge Julia Smith Gibbons wrote that the plaintiffs lacked standing to sue without proof they were monitored by the government.

“The plaintiffs are ultimately prevented from establishing standing because of the state secrets privilege,” Gibbons wrote.”

In other words the plantiffs can’t show where anyone had ever monitored them or anyone else they could think up. This is what I and other supporters have said from the beginning. For all the leftist media hysteria about “Spying on Americans”, the fact is that not one instance of this has been shown to have taken place for which it was not warranted.

Again, if you are speaking with terrorists you HAVE NO RIGHT TO PRIVACY. Even better the ruling tossed that hack Tayor’s awful and politically motivated ruling calling this legal program illegal.

A good ruling.