

Government Says Secret Court Opinion on Law Underlying PRISM Must Stay Secret - teawithcarl
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/06/government-says-secret-court-opinion-law-underlying-prism-program-needs-stay

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einhverfr
Wow. Just wow.

Not only do we have a star chamber, but we can't even be allowed to see what
laws they have concluded are Unconstitutional.

Any facade of a functioning democracy, or of a commitment to transparency by
this government, is swept away.

It also gets to something Scalia said in oral argument in Clapper v. Amnesty
International, namely that we should trust the FISC to address 4th Amendment
issues. It makes me wonder if he knew about the decision before the case
reached the court.

But without such access to case law determining what is Unconstitutional, how
can we know what the law is? Where is due notice in this?

~~~
derleth
> Any facade of a functioning democracy, or of a commitment to transparency by
> this government, is swept away.

The same was true of the Alien and Sedition Acts.

~~~
einhverfr
Not really. These were repealed right around the time of Marbury v. Madison so
we never got a chance to see them in court.

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qubitsam
> The government's bottom line is this: their rules trump the public's
> statutory rights.

Mind boggling. And this is the same government that's invading sovereign
countries, has its agencies undertake black operations to overthrow foreign
democratically elected bodies that don't serve its interests [1], all in the
name of bringing "democracy" to those regions. Here we have that same
government making a fool out of the very people that elected it.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covert_United_States_foreign_r...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covert_United_States_foreign_regime_change_actions)

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asperous
Here is the source:

[https://www.eff.org/sites/default/files/filenode/doj_opposit...](https://www.eff.org/sites/default/files/filenode/doj_opposition_to_eff_motion_06-07-13.pdf)

I. This Court Does Not Have Jurisdiction Over This Motion II. The Opinion at
Issue Is Sealed Pursuant to This Court’s Rules III. This Court Should Not
Vacate the Seal on the Opinion IV. The Fact That Movant May Be Unsuccessful in
the District Court in Compelling the Department of Justice to Release a
Classified, Sealed FISC Opinion Does Not Mean That Plaintiff Faces a
“Catch-22”

The release is really sticky though, this part really caugh my attention:

>"Moreover, even if this Court had jurisdiction over this Motion, it should
deny it, rather than allow another court to determine whether any portions of
its opinion should be released under FOIA. Any such release would be
incomplete and quite possibly misleading to the public about the role of this
Court and the issues discussed in the opinion."

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coldcode
We the people are now we the unimportant nimrods. When the rule of law no
longer matters, we no longer matter.

~~~
wavefunction
The blatant disregard for us shown by our government is really the worst part
about all this. No way to make an informed decision about anything.

This whole "we know better than you" thing:

Well of course you do, you're spying on us and doing all sorts of other
horrible things in secret and not telling us!

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pfortuny
To me, a secret court of justice is equivalent to a secret amendment of the
Constitution: there is no way to protect yourself lawfully against it. Funny
that it exists in the US ans nobody seems to care.

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magoon
As you read the first paragraph, remember that the "Justice Department" is the
executive branch.

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yekko
US justice system in ‘calamitous’ collapse

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cdooh
Laws that are interpreted in secret can only be subject to massive abuse. The
problem isn't the survellance its the lack of public oversight

~~~
rhizome
You ever know someone whose parents always said "because I said so?" It
doesn't turn out well, and this is what they're doing to the country.

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naasking
EFF's link to its previous story is broken.

