The secret U.S. government court that oversees the country's electronic surveillance efforts ruled on Tuesday that orders and legal papers issued by its judges regarding the Bush Administration's warrantless wiretaps will not be made public.

In its opinion, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) acknowledged that public access to the records could lead to better public understanding of the decisions, a more informed public debate over currently proposed amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) under which the FISC was created, and additional safeguards against abuse of power. The court argued, however, that "the detrimental consequences of broad public access to FISC proceedings or records would greatly outweigh any such benefits." The potential consequences of the public release of its records? Allowing terrorists and foreign agents to learn more about the nation's methods of surveillance, outing the identity of information sources, revealing the targets of surveillance efforts, and possible damage to foreign relations, according to the court's 22-page opinion.

"All of these possible harms are real and significant, and, quite frankly, beyond debate," stated the ruling, penned by Judge John D. Bates.

The opinion, only the third ever released by the secretive court, was in response to a motion filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), asking for the court to release recent legal cases that have influenced lawmaker's discussions over amending the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The ACLU is a plaintiff in one of the pending cases against the National Security Agency and the telecommunications companies that allegedly cooperated with U.S. intelligence services to eavesdrop on phone and e-mail conversations without a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

Currently, Congress is debating how to amend FISA. In August, legislators passed the Protect America Act (PAA), a controversial stop-gap measure that dramatically expanded the government's powers to spy on U.S. citizens without a warrant. The law is set to expire in February 2008.

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