The Associated Press reports, "A federal judge struck down parts of the revised USA Patriot Act on Thursday, saying investigators must have a court's approval before they can order Internet providers to turn over records without telling customers." According to the report, "U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero said the government orders must be subject to meaningful judicial review and that the recently rewritten Patriot Act 'offends the fundamental constitutional principles of checks and balances and separation of powers.'"

The Associated Press reports, "A federal judge scolded the Bush administration Wednesday for responding with sometimes blanket secrecy to a request for documents on its warrantless wiretapping program." According to the report, the judge admonished government lawyers by stating, "While the court is certainly sensitive to the government's need to protect classified information and its deliberative processes, essentially declaring 'because we say so' is an inadequate."

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that a federal appeals court has ruled the CIA's top-secret daily briefings for the president on intelligence information must remain secret, even 40 years later, if the agency reasonably concludes that disclosure would compromise national security. According to the report, "The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said a UC Davis political science professor and historian was not entitled to any portion of the CIA's briefings to President Lyndon Johnson for two days during the Vietnam War, Aug. 6, 1965, and April 2, 1968."