Supreme Court says FISA spying is 'none of our business'

In a 5-4 decision issued Tuesday morning, the Supreme Court of the United States has decided that individuals and organizations cannot challenge the constitutionality of FISA's global surveillance regime without proof that they, in fact, are being spied upon, despite the fact that no one can know for sure that he's being spied upon until after being arrested and shown the government's evidence'to the extent that, too, isn't deemed too secret to share. Justice Alito wrote the majority opinion for the five justices you'd suspect; Justice Breyer dissented on behalf of the other four.

A group of lawyers, journalists, human rights researchers, and others had sued to challenge the constitutionality of the government eavesdropping system, based upon an "objectively reasonable likelihood" of being spied upon and the extent to which each had already modified his or her communications to avoid what was deemed illegal surveillance. Among this group are attorneys who work with Guantanamo detainees who need to speak to their clients' families in overseas trouble spots and journalists who need to speak to sources in Iran, Syria, Cuba and Libya. The Obama Administration, in response, asked the Court to find that no one could file suit without first demonstrating that he or she had been or would be monitored, or that the monitoring would cause any real harm.

Trust the FISA Court, they argued, and the Court agreed that speculative harm was not enough, both as to whether they would be monitored or that the FISA Amendments would be the method. Was this kind of one-sided system fair? According to Justice Scalia during oral argument, so what if no one can challenge the government?

JUSTICE SCALIA: Mr. Verrilli, we've had we've had cases in the past where it is clear that nobody would have standing to challenge what is -- what is brought before this Court.

GENERAL VERRILLI: That's exactly right, Justice Scalia.

JUSTICE SCALIA: And we've said that that just proves that under our system of separated powers, it is none of our business.

Why this is a bad idea, under the gnocchi: