Comment by eightyone
13 years ago
"In a rare public filing in the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), the Justice Department today urged continued secrecy for a 2011 FISC opinion that found the National Security Agency's surveillance under the FISA Amendments Act to be unconstitutional. Significantly, the surveillance at issue was carried out under the same controversial legal authority that underlies the NSA’s recently-revealed PRISM program." [1]
[1] https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/06/government-says-secret...
That is a good argument. However, the NSA isn't breaking the law until the supreme court strikes down the FISA amendments, right?
I don't understand exactly what happens when a law is found unconstitutional. I can't imagine an analyst at the NSA would be retroactively charged with a crime, would they?
I'm not a lawyer, but I don't think that's correct. I believe they have to abide by the FISC ruling until a higher court rules in their favor. Obviously they don't want to take it to a higher court because then the public would find out. There's a reason why they are trying to keep the documents of the ruling a secret. Any lawyers here feel free to chime in.