The US Supreme Court refused without comment the ACLU's appeal of a lower court ruling that blocked the group from suing over the Bush administration's warrantless wiretap program. The appeals court has blocked the case from proceeding because complainants couldn't prove they were being tapped, yet they couldn't prove they were being tapped because claims of national security block further investigation.

"It's very disturbing that the president's actions will go unremarked upon by the court," said the ACLU's Jameel Jaffer in a statement. "It shouldn’t be left to executive branch officials alone to determine what limits apply to their own surveillance activities and whether those limits are being honored," says Jaffer. "Allowing the executive branch to police itself flies in the face of the constitutional system of checks and balances."