Gosh, we violated the law and the US Constitution, but we stopped doing it now, so the prosecution of our crime is moot.

Lets pretend nothing ever happened, nothing to see here, move along.

The US government has filed a motion to drop the case the ACLU won in lower court against the government's warrantless wiretapping program. The government's appeal of that ruling will be heard on Wednesday, January 31 in front of the Sixth Circuit court of appeals. The feds argue that the case is now moot because they are now obtaining warrants from the FISA court, and furthermore President Bush did not renew the warrantless tapping program.

"There is no longer any appropriate basis for proceeding with this litigation, given both that the President has determined not to reauthorize the TSP, and that the central premise for plaintiffs' action---that any electronic surveillance that was being conducted was without court authorization—no longer exists. There is, therefore, no longer any live genuine controversy to adjudicate."

Turns out there's a Supreme Court precedent saying that if you were doing something illegal, get taken to court, and then stop the illegal activity, you're not off the hook. The feds argue in their petition that this precedent does not apply to them.