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NSA survellience opinion

There's an interesting discussion of the district court ruling (actually, several discussions) over at Volokh.com.

Just two comments:

1. It illustrates how "standing" tends to work out to "if the court likes your case, you have standing, otherwise you don't." Plenty of firearm and other cases have been dumped on standing grounds, on the basis that "I won't do something because it's against the law and I fear prosecution" isn't enough. Here, "somebody in another country won't do something (talk to me) because they fear they might be overheard and prosecuted" is held to create standing.

2. In order to win on standing, plaintiffs had to argue, and the court accept, that the program is functioning as intended. Namely, terrorists and possible terrorists are unable to use the telephone for fear of being overheard and prosecuted.