Since 9/11 the Bush administration has used the war on terror as an excuse to overstep constitutional boundaries, spy on citizens, and grab power. Their insistence on maintaining an all-important veil of secrecy has enabled them to trample on the bill of rights and has rendered the judicial and legislative branches lifeless. Fortunately, on Thursday Congress took one small but important step toward slowing Bush's rapid ascent to the throne. The New York Times reported that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has been granted some power to oversee the NSA's eavesdropping program.

The White House has agreed to allow limited judicial review of the eavesdropping program run by the National Security Agency, Senator Arlen Specter, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and a White House spokeswoman said today.

Mr. Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican who has sharply questioned the propriety of the program since it was disclosed several months ago, said the White House had agreed to a bill that provides for the highly secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to "consider the program as a whole and to make a decision on it."

The senator said the White House agreed to the review after weeks of arduous negotiations that concluded late Wednesday. "And the upshot of it is that there is a bill," Mr. Specter said, emphasizing that President Bush had reserved the right to approve any changes.

According to Specter, the bill requires "government investigators [to] explain why they believe intercepted communications involve terrorism" and establishes "new penalties if officials misuse information." While the measure represents an improvement, it certainly does not completely remedy the situation.  The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court is an extremely secret operation and its rulings will not be publicized. Thus, the American public will still be kept in the dark. In addition, the Bush Administration has reserved the right to approve any future changes to the bill, meaning that the court's limited review power is not likely to be expanded anytime soon. And, in case anyone was concerned, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino assured the press Thursday that the bill "recognizes the president's constitutional authority." Whew, what a relief!

In any event, we should all be slightly relieved that someone has remembered the system of checks and balances. Judicial review of the executive? What a novel concept. Specter pointed out that `the agreement reflects the fact that "the president does not have a blank check."' Amen.

Click here to read the entire New York Times article.