5 Things To Know About The NSA Court Ruling

Here are five takeaways from Judge Richard Leon's opinion on National Security Agency surveillance program:

1. The government can't or won't justify the program.
2. Technology is moving faster than the law. The ubiquity of phones, Judge Leon wrote, "has dramatically altered the quantity of information that is now available and more importantly, what that information can tell the Government about people's lives."
3. Americans are at the mercy of an unprecedented union between industry and government. Judge Leon suggested an almost conspiratorial fusion between the interests of the NSA and the telecom industry.
4. Leon is just one judge -- and can be an iconoclast. For one thing, the decision of a single federal judge at the district court level has no bearing on the conclusion that another district court judge might reach or what an appeals court might conclude.
5. The Senate's "nuclear option" could make trouble for President Obama. The White House hailed Majority Leader Harry Reid's decision in November 2012 to trigger the so-called "nuclear option" to eliminate the minority party's ability to block federal judicial nominees. But in this case, that move could come back to haunt the administration.