The decision could undercut Colombia's $7.5 billion program to curtail coca production and curb the influence of leftist guerrillas.

As you say, the decision undercuts the jury system.

Mr. Klain said the court's decision to count ballots around the state undercut the Republican argument that selective recounts were unfair.

But college administrators and scholarship fund directors, along with leaders in the education and civil rights fields, charged that the decision would undercut painstaking efforts to improve the enrollment levels of minorities at schools.

The matter will be an important one because the E.P.A.'s decision could undercut California's ability to regulate global warming gases.

But in the short run Mr. Martin's decision will undercut New York's influence in the House.

By seeming to acknowledge that it is acceptable for the government to control the news, the decision undercuts our ability to criticize totalitarian governments for doing that.

Mr. Anwar, who says he is the victim of a political conspiracy, reacted angrily, saying the court's decision undercut his defense that all the evidence was untrue.

But the union leaders' decision to link their contract fight to their organizing goals undercut that progress, he said.

Another plaintiff in the suits, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, a Democrat, said the agency's decision could "undercut strong state enforcement efforts to protect air quality."