Hawai'i Rep. Ed Case clearly understands the need for domestic security in these tense days. He voted, for instance, for the Patriot Act extension.

But even Case has become concerned about President Bush's approval of spying on American citizens without a court warrant. Case believes the president's power has gone unchecked.

"I fear he's going to get away with it," Case said in a conversation with The Advertiser editorial board. "I believe in investigative powers — if they are supervised."

That role was supposed to belong to the members of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, also known as FISA, a secret court established in the 1970s to grant warrants for government surveillance.

Now even FISA judges want to know exactly what the president was doing without their approval.

Bush remains insistent that as commander-in-chief, he must act quickly to get valuable intelligence. But FISA allows for warrant-less eavesdropping for up to 72 hours in special cases.

No matter how accommodating the court, it wasn't good enough for Bush and his administration's National Security Agency.

There is a bright side here. Bush's aggressive efforts to encroach on the civil liberties of ordinary Americans in the name of national security has made the nation aware of a secret body like FISA that few of us knew even existed.