[JURIST] The Bush administration has asked the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals [official website] to overturn a decision [opinion text] made last year by a US District Court preventing the government from conducting secret searches of communications records. The District Court ruling came in a case considering whether an ISP was required to release records to the FBI. The court found the law that authorized these searches wrongly barred legal challenges and imposed a gag order on affected businesses. The filing of the appeal occurs amid a debate in Congress over whether to renew the Patriot Act and expand the FBI's power to to demand records without a judicial order. AP has more.