The Department of Justice has been extremely forthcoming in providing documents and information about the administration's legal authorities for the terrorist surveillance program and the department will continue to meet its obligations under FOIA.

The FISA 'probable cause' standard is essentially the same as the 'reasonable basis' standard used in the terrorist-surveillance program. The 'reasonable suspicion' standard, which is lower than both of these, is not used in either program.

The Attorney General has followed all DOJ guidelines which govern these decisions.

The attorney general's comments today should not be interpreted to suggest the existence or nonexistence of a domestic program or whether any such program would be lawful under the existing legal analysis.

a technical difference between circuit courts, which are bound by precedent, and the Supreme Court, which often gives great deference to precedent but is not required to abide by it.

As seven former solicitors general have stated previously, the confidentiality that enables the solicitor general's office to vigorously defend the United States' interests should not be sacrificed as a part of the confirmation process.

Any suggestion of civil liberties violations is an effort to shift the focus of the discussion away from the facts. There have been no verified civil liberties violations filed against the Patriot Act. Period.

These proposals were drafted by junior staffers and never formally presented to the attorney general or the White House. They were not drafted with the NSA program in mind.

It would be a real stretch to claim this purely factual statement about how our court system operates is indicative of how Judge Roberts would address the abortion issue, or any other issue.

We are confident Congress will ultimately send the president a bill that does not undermine the ability of investigators and prosecutors to disrupt terrorist plots and combat terrorism effectively.