Transparency, Democracy, and Security

If you don't know the laws and judicial decisions being made, you can't be an informed participant in the civic life of the nation.  Secret FISA courts whose decisions and interpretations are not for our tender ears, rubber-stamping executive branch requests that are offered through assertion, not adversarial advocacy … this cuts to the heart of the constitutional system of checks and balances, not to mention separation of powers.

I think the vast majority would agree and understand that the public can't know everything that is done in matters of national security, if only because such knowledge would itself hamper such efforts.

But we must know the parameters under which such actions are allowed to happen, and have confidence that there's someone who's arguing for the "No" case when such decisions are made. Otherwise there are no effective limits to power save the good judgment and citizenship of those acting behind closed doors — and history, our own and other nations, demonstrates what a frail reed that is to depend upon.