"Clearly, the government was overreaching," said Timothy H. Edgar, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, about the immigration programs.

Defense lawyers also say the mixed record demonstrates that the government has overreached, a criticism rejected by leaders of the antitrust division.

He said that the cases he won, as well as the other acquittals, demonstrated that the government had been overreaching.

Unable to prove this, the Justice Department abandoned the case, amid criticism that the government had overreached.

"The government is seriously overreaching in this case and Mr. Ritchie looks forward to being vindicated at trial," he said.

But when government overreaches its authority, it undermines its legitimacy.

Developers, represented by the National Homebuilders Association and other groups, had celebrated the ruling as confirming their complaints that the government had overreached.

Anderson worries that the government may be overreaching here, trying to force intermediaries to act even without legal authority to force compliance.

His father, Frank Lindh, said he thought the government had "overreached."

A government can overreach.