Government Says Secret Court Opinion on Law Underlying PRISM Must Stay Secret

Wow. Just wow.<p>Not only do we have a star chamber, but we can&#x27;t even be allowed to see what laws they have concluded are Unconstitutional.<p>Any facade of a functioning democracy, or of a commitment to transparency by this government, is swept away.<p>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.<p>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?

&gt; The government&#x27;s bottom line is this: their rules trump the public&#x27;s statutory rights.<p>Mind boggling. And this is the same government that&#x27;s invading sovereign countries, has its agencies undertake black operations to overthrow foreign democratically elected bodies that don&#x27;t serve its interests [1], all in the name of bringing &quot;democracy&quot; to those regions. Here we have that same government making a fool out of the very people that elected it.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Covert_United_States_foreign_regime_change_actions" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Covert_United_States_foreign_r...</a>

Here is the source:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.eff.org&#x2F;sites&#x2F;default&#x2F;files&#x2F;filenode&#x2F;doj_opposition_to_eff_motion_06-07-13.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.eff.org&#x2F;sites&#x2F;default&#x2F;files&#x2F;filenode&#x2F;doj_opposit...</a><p>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”<p>The release is really sticky though, this part really caugh my attention:<p>&gt;&quot;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.&quot;

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

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.

As you read the first paragraph, remember that the &quot;Justice Department&quot; is the executive branch.

US justice system in ‘calamitous’ collapse

Laws that are interpreted in secret can only be subject to massive abuse. The problem isn&#x27;t the survellance its the lack of public oversight

EFF&#x27;s link to its previous story is broken.