Ironically, though, we may not find out what, if anything, the FISC does with its power — that is, whether it is closing the curtains on Americans’ privacy or opening them even wider than before.  I fear we are once again likely to be in the dark about exactly what the National Security Agency is doing with our telephone metadata.

Why? After all, the new law hoped to make FISC proceedings more transparent. It even requires the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), “in consultation with the Attorney General,” to conduct a declassification review of each decision, order, or opinion issued by the FISC that includes “a significant construction or interpretation” of any provision of law and make it publicly available “to the greatest extent practicable.”

But let’s say the FISC takes the (courageous) step of denying the government the authority to analyze our telephone metadata for the purpose of gathering foreign intelligence. In such a case, would this constitute “significant construction or interpretation” of the law? The court would simply be doing what the law explicitly says it can do by imposing additional “minimization procedures” on the government.