Could Be, Then Again, Might Not Be, So, One Never Knows, Does One

The Supreme Court says you can't sue the government for spying on you....unless you can prove the government is spying on you...which they'll never tell you. The Court issued a 5-4 decision in Clapper v. Amnesty International today, and said that a group suing to overturn the 2008 expansion of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act lacks standing to fight the law's constitutionality. Essentially, because the group of attorneys, human rights groups, and media organizations couldn't show that the government actually monitored their conversations, there was no way to prove their rights were violated. Conservative Justice Samuel Alito delivered the majority opinion, saying "respondents merely speculate and make assumptions about whether their communications with foreign contacts will be acquired." Justice Steven Breyer wrote the dissenting opinion, saying, "the majority is wrong when it describes the harm threatened plantiffs as 'speculative'." And so, the legal catch 22 of FISA and all government surveillance continues. If you can't prove the government is listening, you'll never be able to say it's unconstitutional. And I wouldn't expect the Feds to admit their listening any time soon.