A federal judge last week declared a second mistrial in the case against six Miami men who were accused of plotting to carry out a terror attack against the Sears Tower in Chicago. The first mistrial was declared last December when one of the defendants was also acquitted. The government is pursuing a third trial.

The Justice Department has been acting on local terror threats on a pre-emptive basis in order to prevent suspected terrorists from attaining the necessary resources to carry out an attack. Some of the investigative methods used by the FBI have been questionable with much of their information coming from informants, one of whom posed as a representative of bin Laden in order to incite the participation of the accused men.

This raises the question of whether or not the Justice Department, a part of the executive branch, is allowed to fight terrorism by any means possible. The need to stop potential terrorists is great and the issue of national security is pressing, but should civil liberties be sacrificed in the process?

Fortunately, the judicial system is still acting independently and despite pressures set by the executive to establish precedence in such cases, the judiciary still acquits in the absence of concrete evidence.