I'll keep repeating this on HN:<p>NSA is a symptom. Secret courts (and "state secret" legal defenses) are the disease.<p>Limiting NSA through policy or defunding won't do anything. They'll circumvent it and it will continue to happen in secrecy somewhere else.<p>The only solution to stopping mass surveillance is allowing the ability for the state surveillance to be challenged in court. Secret panels of judges are insufficient means to having judicial checks on state power. The only way this can happen is if 'state secret' laws are revised and FISA courts stop issuing warrants in secret.
I don't understand, the first basic rule of intelligence services is you can't use any of their information in court. It's the basic premise behind giving them unlimited privileges.