In the last-ditch warrantless wiretapping accountability case, Judge Vaughn Walker has ruled that the Bush administration illegally eavesdropped on American lawyers representing Al Haramain, a now-defunct Islamic charity, and that the attorney could pursue civil remedies.

The lawyers alleged some of their 2004 telephone conversations to Saudi Arabia were siphoned to the National Security Agency without warrants. The allegations were initially based on a classified document the government accidentally mailed to the former Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation lawyers. The document was later declared a state secret and removed from the long-running lawsuit weighing whether a sitting U.S. president may create a spying program to eavesdrop on Americans’ electronic communications without warrants

"Plaintiffs must, and have, put forward enough evidence to establish a prima facie case that they were subjected to warrantless electronic surveillance," U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker ruled, in a landmark decision. Even without the classified document, the judge said he believed the lawyers "were subjected to unlawful electronic surveillance." (.pdf)

It’s the first ruling addressing how Bush’s once-secret spy program was carried out against American citizens. Other cases considered the program’s overall constitutionality, absent any evidence of actual illegal eavesdropping.

The Obama administration’s Justice Department staunchly defended the lawsuit. The classified document was removed from the case at the behest of both the Bush and Obama administrations that declared it a state secret.