Judge Strikes Blow to Bush's Terror Powers

LOS ANGELES — A federal judge struck down President Bush's authority to designate groups as terrorists, saying his post-September 11 executive order was unconstitutionally vague, according to a ruling released yesterday.

The Humanitarian Law Project had challenged Bush's order, which blocked all the assets of groups or individuals he named as "specially designated global terrorists" after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

"This law gave the president unfettered authority to create blacklists," said David Cole, a lawyer for the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Constitutional Rights that represented the group. "It was reminiscent of the McCarthy era."

The case centered on two groups, the Liberation Tigers, which seeks a separate homeland for the Tamil people in Sri Lanka, and Partiya Karkeran Kurdistan, a political organization representing the interests of Kurds in Turkey.

U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins enjoined the government from blocking the assets of the two groups.

Both groups consider the November 21 ruling a victory; both had been designated by America as foreign terrorist organizations.

Mr. Cole said the judge's ruling does not invalidate the hundreds of other designated terrorist groups on the list but "calls them into question."

A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice, Charles Miller, said, "We are currently reviewing the decision and we have made no determination what the government's next step will be."