WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed an appeal from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) against the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program. 

The program allowed the National Security Agency to monitor suspect telephone calls and e-mails between the United States and overseas without first obtaining a judge’s orders. 

The ACLU, in a lawsuit representing itself, journalists and professors, argued that the program was illegal, that it disrupted their ability to communicate with sources and clients and that it violated people’s right to privacy.

A lower court judge initially agreed, but the appeals court turned down the case last July saying that the plaintiffs could not prove that their foreign communications had been monitored. 

President Bush confirmed the existence of the program in late 2005, only after the New York Times published an article about it.

The administration announced in January 2007 that it would put intercepts of communications on U.S. soil under the oversight of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. 

The ACLU urged justices to consider its case, arguing that because the administration voluntarily ended the warrantless wiretapping, it could easily restart it.

Congress made temporary changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) last August that legalized warrantless wiretapping in some instances.

The Senate voted 68-29 to reauthorize the act last Tuesday. But the bill included a provision that would grant retroactive immunity from lawsuits to telecommunications companies involved in warrantless wiretapping, a measure that last year’s version of the FISA reauthorization did not include.

House Democrats refused to pass the bill, allowing the temporary surveillance law to expire Saturday.

The government can continue existing warrantless wiretapping and introduce new surveillance as long as it follows the FISA rules, which could require court warrants. 

Compiled from wire services