A judge has struck down one piece of our Maginot Line that defends us from terrorists. She could have delayed the ruling for three weeks, thereby making it even more symbolic, but she had the grace not to do that.

The trouble with watching too many movies and TV shows about lawyers and courtrooms is that real life courtroom wars are never quite the same as the entertainment versions. In the entertainment versions of court battles, everything usually ends by the time the credits roll. Not so, in the real world.

Those who seem to know say that this ruling will be appealed. If it is overturned, that would make it just another election time ploy.

If it is not overturned, it will not only open a hole in our defensive wall. It could kill or severely damage cases now being built and would almost certainly drag back into the courts many previously convicted and sentenced people whose attorneys will argue that the evidence against them might have been tainted, and could permit some of them to be released.