I have a vague memory of someone online referring to me as a "Constitutional absolutist" - I think it might have been Gordon King. If so he was absolutely right.

So yes, I'm cheering the latest news out of the US overturning yet another ill-thought program threatening that great document. A federal judge, in what will no doubt be but the first round of a very long case, has ruled the Bush administration's domestic eavesdropping program is illegal and unconstitutional. The judge notes:

The Government appears to argue here that, pursuant to the penumbra of Constitutional language in Article II, and particularly because the President is designated Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, he has been granted the inherent power to violate not only the laws of the Congress but the First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitution, itself.

We must first note that the Office of the Chief Executive has itself been created, with its powers, by the Constitution. There are no hereditary Kings in America and no powers not created by the Constitution. So all "inherent powers" must derive from that Constitution.

It's a victory for freedom and for the free press with kudos once again going to The New York Times, which had the courage to run with the story. So it looks as if charges of treason against the paper's editors and journalists, advocated by some wingers, will have to wait.

The "unconstitutional" part of the verdict also makes it extremely difficult for Congress to now pass enabling legislation to legalise the program, as others predicted.