Surveillance secrets: courts protect spying.

• Author: Tuccille, J.D.
• Position: Citings - Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendments Act of 2008 - Brief article

IN FEBRUARY the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a challenge to warrantless surveillance conducted under a 2008 amendment to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that allows the government to intercept Americans' communications with people outside the country. The plaintiffs in Clapper v. Amnesty International failed to demonstrate standing to challenge the law, said the Court, since they couldn't show evidence that anyone had eavesdropped on them. That's difficult given that the government won't reveal whose communications it intercepts, which means that nobody can claim standing in the absence of a leak.

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Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito said, "It is highly speculative whether the Government will imminently target communications to which respondents are parties," since "they have no actual knowledge of the Government's [section] 1881a targeting practices." That is exactly the argument the federal government has pushed since this case began. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) warned in 2012 that "the Justice Department claims the...