A judge appointed by former President Jimmy Carter (big surprise there) today ruled unconstitutional the Bush Administration's terrorist surveillance program, an important weapon in the War on Terror. (Click here to read the decision.) The 73-year-old judge, Anna Diggs Taylor, was apparently asleep last Thursday when British authorities, working in conjunction with the United States, thwarted a major terror plot.

As HumanEvents.com pointed out in an editorial earlier this week, the foiled plot illustrated exactly why the terrorist surveillance program is needed. Here's an excerpt in case you missed it:

The tools the Bush Administration has put in place are necessary, and while critics are entitled to question them, the intelligence community’s success in stopping attacks in the United States, and our cooperation with the British and other governments overseas, is an encouraging sign that surveillance programs are working. Democrats who attack them apparently don’t understand the consequences.

White House Press Secretary Tony Snow had this to say following today's ruling:

Last week America and the world received a stark reminder that terrorists are still plotting to attack our country and kill innocent people. Today a federal judge in Michigan has ruled that the Terrorist Surveillance Program ordered by the President to detect and prevent terrorist attacks against the American people is unconstitutional and otherwise illegal. We couldn’t disagree more with this ruling, and the Justice Department will seek an immediate stay of the opinion and appeal. Until the Court has the opportunity to rule on a stay of the Court's ruling in a hearing now set for September 7, 2006, the parties have agreed that enforcement of the ruling will be stayed.

United States intelligence officials have confirmed that the program has helped stop terrorist attacks and saved American lives. The program is carefully administered, and only targets international phone calls coming into or out of the United States where one of the parties on the call is a suspected Al Qaeda or affiliated terrorist. The whole point is to detect and prevent terrorist attacks before they can be carried out. That’s what the American people expect from their government, and it is the President’s most solemn duty to ensure their protection.

The Terrorist Surveillance Program is firmly grounded in law and regularly reviewed to make sure steps are taken to protect civil liberties. The Terrorist Surveillance Program has proven to be one of our most critical and effective tools in the war against terrorism, and we look forward to demonstrating on appeal the validity of this vital program.

Contrast Snow's remarks with those of liberal windbag Sen. Teddy Kennedy (D.-Mass.) -- "the White House created a surveillance program that flunks the requirements of our laws and Constitution and leaves us at risk" -- and you have the reason why Bob Tyrrell, whose column now appears at HumanEvents.com, says Republicans will win in November: The American people just can't trust Democrats on national security.

UPDATE -- 5:28 p.m.: The Republican National Committee just released an excellent breakdown of the Democrats' praise for today's ruling against the terrorist surveillance program. This is a great piece of research and illustrates just how clueless Democrats are when it comes to the War on Terror.