The court has not yet accepted a terrorism-related case for this term, but several could make it onto the docket.

Aside from the terrorism-related cases that will be argued next month, there is probably no more heavily freighted issue on the court's current docket than this one.

In recent weeks, both the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have begun inquiries into the handling of terrorism-related cases in the region.

The current administration has tried to have as many terrorism-related cases as possible brought in that circuit, precisely because its conservative members tend to favor presidential authority.

Mr. López Aguilar said the government had detained about 1,000 people in terrorism-related cases in the past year, although most have been released.

Indeed, the government had defeated attempts to restrict Part 2 to terrorism-related cases during the passage of the Bill through the House of Lords.

It may also explain the administration's so far self-defeating legal strategy in the terrorism-related cases, which seems to amount to driving headlong into a judicial roadblock.

The Justice Department says it has brought 441 prosecutions in what it considers to be terrorism-related cases, with 261 convictions and 150 cases remaining.

That misconception, she said, is fueled in part by the Justice Department's much-publicized pursuit of what it calls "terrorism-related" cases.

They said that without Mr. Ressam's crucial testimony, their terrorism-related cases against two associates were dead.