NewsLab
Oct 27 15:33 UTC

The US Government Is Hiding Secret Court Ruling About How It Spies on Americans (wired.com)

160 points|by helterskelter2||27 comments|Read full story on wired.com

Comments (27)

26 shown
  1. 1. TheCoelacanth||context
    Secret courts are anathema to democracy and need to be abolished.
  2. 2. tastyfreeze||context
    I came to say the same thing. The secret courts and even the administrative agency courts should not exist. They are a violation of our rights. Any court where the prosecution, judge and jury are all government employees is a gross abuse of authority.
  3. 3. edot||context
    "Wyden has also warned about a classified interpretation of Section 702 that he says multiple administrations have relied on and refused to declassify. “When it is eventually declassified,” he said in March, “the American people are going to be stunned that it took so long and that Congress had been debating this authority with insufficient information.”"

    Spying on American citizens is a bipartisan point of agreement.

  4. 4. koops||context
    To be fair, the one raising this point, Wyden, is a Democrat.
  5. 5. jagged-chisel||context
    The one raising the point. Apparently standing alone amongst otherwise bipartisan support of spying on Americans.
  6. 6. advisedwang||context
    Wyden is the ranking D member of the intelligence committee (ie would be chair under a D senate). He's not some maverick bucking his party, this is the expression of the party position.
  7. 7. oliwarner||context
    If that were the case, they'd have done something about it before. This doesn't appear to be new.
  8. 8. BoofMcQueen42||context
    Wyden is an aberration. He (unfortunately) does not represent the party on these issues.
  9. 9. iAMkenough||context
    Unpopular opinion: Ever since the Citizens United decision, economic class is what divides us, not which team you vote for.

    One party is a little more willing to allow working class candidates to succeed, but both major parties are known for engaging in ratfucking.

  10. 10. podgorniy||context
    Spying on American citizens and going together on Lolita Express to Epstein island...
  11. 11. Larrikin||context
    I love the both siding argument springing up right before election day.
  12. 12. trinsic2||context
    You know what I love? We have spent over 100 years going back and forth on party politics. It has done nothing to move the bar on justice. The democrats silently allow the same things under the radar while the republicans do things out in the open. Its the carrot and the stick approach. Populism isn't working. We need to focus on systemic change. Both parties are filled with institutionalists that will do nothing to stop the real abuses because they gain significantly by keeping things they way they are..
  13. 13. Larrikin||context
    State an actual solution, you're just making a covert both sides argument under the guise of a longer rant.
  14. 14. NDlurker||context
    It is both sides. Republicans accelerate it, but Democrats don't shut it down when they have the chance. Obama and Biden had 12 years to fix it.
  15. 15. b3ing||context
    How can you change anything when the system is built with a fundamental flaw, the constitution never incorporated ethics, it was supposed to be up to the people to vote in ethical people, but that failed. The ones that benefit are corrupt and won’t change it, and good luck on getting enough people voted in power with a conscience to change it and not be swayed by power and money.
  16. 16. StanislavPetrov||context
    It's all one side as far as I'm concerned and always has been.
  17. 17. ARandomerDude||context
    The debate about reapproval of section 702 is all theater. Does anyone genuinely believe the government would stop surveilling us if the authorization expired?
  18. 18. tokai||context
    This headline has been relevant since 2001.
  19. 19. sharts||context
    This kind of thing will never stop. And those who control it have all the leverage and power.

    Perhaps all the spying data should just be publicly accessible and easily accessible for all to use and abuse.

    Would democratizing it all so there is never an expectation of privacy from the public vs a select few in power be better in the long run?

  20. 20. advisedwang||context
    They don't want the public to see the big green "APPROVED" rubber stamp that the FISC uses.
  21. 21. baggachipz||context
    > The Trump administration has until November 6 to answer the senators.

    How convenient that this is right after the midterm elections. If they maintain control, the republicans can simply decide to ignore this requirement without penalty.

  22. 22. CWuestefeld||context
    Remind me in February to look back at how much the Democrats have done about it.
  23. 23. trinsic2||context
    Yep this authoritarian movement is much bigger than the parties. We will see, again and again, how much it matters and the go back to the same old game every election and everyone will forget about how they have been played the first time. Im so sick of this corrupt system.
  24. 24. V__||context
    I will always be baffled by the dichotomy of "the US has the most freedom" and "no democratic country spies more on its citizens".
  25. 25. matthewmcg||context
    He should go further and describe or read these secret rulings on the Senate floor, where the speech and debate clause protects him.
  26. 26. silverFork||context
    How it is done, everybody knows how.. backdoors in servers, back door in communication equipment, decryption method for of all that goes through fiber in entire world.. Massive data storage to store everything. How is not an issue; every node and communication, hardware and software has a backdoor.

    Do they have the right to tap into world communication as well as their own is the issue? They are not challenged by apposing parties and their own population or people have given up.

    Perhaps there will be a disaster is waiting with all these backdoors and Ai supremacy.