FISA Court Missing Checks and Balances

What is the difference between secret law and no law at all? For American citizens contemplating the amorphous powers of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, and the shrouded body of law upon which its secret decisions are based, the distinction borders on trivial. Indeed, recent investigative reports suggest that both the court and the law it administers (and helped to create) exist largely outside the boundaries of established jurisprudence.

Due to the release of documents by former National Security Agency consultant Edward Snowden, and subsequent reporting by the news media, the dangers of this un-American exceptionalism are becoming known. The 11-member surveillance court operates in rotating shifts; most of the orders authorizing government surveillance have been signed by a single judge -- whichever one is on duty at the moment. Each judge was appointed, without review, by a single man, Chief Justice of the U.S. John Roberts. Although a court of review can be empaneled to hear appeals, in effect, a lone judge, appointed by a lone judge, is the only barrier between the government’s demand for intelligence and a citizen’s constitutional right of privacy.