In recent months, other courts have also challenged the administration's designation of enemy combatants and other aspects of the campaign against terrorism, but the Los Angeles decision was the first by a federal judge to strike down any portion of the Patriot Act.
The Bush administration's recommended designation of wilderness in the Chugach should be cause for celebration.
The administration made its designation under Executive Order 13224, which gives the government broad authority to freeze assets held by terrorist organizations and their members in the United States.
Last year, Congress and the Clinton administration changed the designation to "normal trade relations," a less weighty phrase thought to be less politically charged.
The Obama administration's proposed designation of 200,000 square miles of Alaskan waters and sea ice as critical habitat for the polar bear is not just encouraging news for the bear.
Among the men, it is impossible to say how many are terrorists, how many are militants, and how many are simply, to use the administration's obscene designation, "young men of military age".
Although it has been outspoken in calling the critical habitat designations counterproductive, the administration has now designated some 38 million acres of critical habitat for 115 species, more species than any previous administration.
The church had divided the country into four so-called apostolic administrations, a temporary designation it had used in many Eastern European nations in the last century, when the Soviet Union suppressed religion.
Another senior administration official said the designation "is a very strong signal of our resolve to combat the Haqqanis".
While some military commanders pushed for the designation, the administration ultimately decided that such a move might alienate the Haqqanis and drive them away from future negotiations.
