Oregon Public Broadcasting

A federal judge in California has ruled that attorneys for a defunct Oregon Islamic charity may go forward with efforts to clear the group's name. April Baer reports.

Attorneys for the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation of Oregon have been in a very frustrating legal position.

They were accidentally faxed a document, which they say proves that their clients were wiretapped illegally. 

When the government realized its mistake, the document was snatched back, and effectively stricken from the record.

Plaintiffs' attorney Steven Goldberg and his colleagues cobbled together enough outside evidence  -- beyond the infamous document -- to convince Judge Vaughn Walker of the need for  further hearings.

Steven Goldberg    "We haven't been able to talk about the document, rely on the document in any way in our court filings recently. So this is a '180' in terms of saying 'Yes, we should be able to talk about the document, subject to security procedures'."

The plaintiffs' work is just beginning. They'll still have to apply for top-secret clearance, and put together a case to prove Al-Haramain was wrongly branded as a financier of terror.