I feel like I must be late to the party here, but Schumer has introduced an interesting bill that basically invites lawsuits over the wiretapping issue:

Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, introduced a bill Wednesday that would put lawsuits challenging the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance program on a fast track to the Supreme Court.

With Congress and the Bush administration at odds over the legality of eavesdropping on Americans without court warrants, the legislation could produce a timely ruling by the court on the program’s constitutionality, Mr. Schumer said.

“We have a system of checks and balances,” he said, “and, in this case, when the stakes are so high, the Supreme Court should be the ultimate check.”

The bill would permit lawsuits by scholars, journalists and others who assert that they have refrained from calls or e-mail messages to Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries because of “a reasonable fear” of N.S.A. eavesdropping.

Such suits would be heard by a panel of three federal judges, whose decision could be appealed immediately to the Supreme Court.

By removing many of the obstacles (time, money, standard process) to such lawsuits, I assume Schumer is hoping to pave the way for at least one branch of the government to check the Executive.

If someone out there knows the bill number on this, I’d love to know.