For once, there’s major progress in impeding the incessant destruction of civil liberties for “security” purposes. If you’ve followed the fight to do away with clearly unconstitutional, abuse-prone spying powers that Bush gave himself and Obama continued, you’ll know about the Catch 22 the ACLU found in court: to contest these powers, plaintiffs have to prove they’ve been harmed–i.e., spied on–by said powers. But no one can find out if they’ve been a target, because the government claims the “state secrets” privilege and won’t say. Therefore, no one can have a day in court. What goes on behind closed doors continues, and we get to simply trust our watchers to only watch what they say they will. Which always goes well.
Turns out several journalists have succeeded in finding a way to prove standing. Might not seem like much, but it’s a major crack in the armor of monolithic and uncontestable civil liberties abuse.
The ever-sardonic Glenn Greenwald explains the whole thing.
