If you can't get in the *front* door...

Turns out that federal courts weren't too impressed with Ashcroft and the administration's handling of wiretaps and requests for same, back in 2002.

The secretive federal court that approves spying on terror suspects in the United States has refused to give the Justice Department broad new powers, saying the government had misused the law and misled the court dozens of times, according to an extraordinary legal ruling released yesterday.
. . .
"In virtually every instance, the government's misstatements and omissions in FISA applications and violations of the Court's orders involved information sharing and unauthorized disseminations to criminal investigators and prosecutors."

Guess they just decided to stop asking for permission, so that they could give up the charade that they were in some way upholding the law...