Denied in the Supreme Court, warrantless wiretap opponents are losing ground fast

For the past decade, a legal battle has been brewing on multiple fronts over the US government’s ability to conduct secret surveillance on the phone calls and emails of American citizens without a warrant. And after a Supreme Court decision, it's a fight that the American people are in grave danger of losing.

The 5-4 decision that ended Clapper v. Amnesty International earlier this week did not address the important question of whether or not warrantless wiretaps are constitutional, as various lawyers, journalists, and civil rights groups have been asking the court to do since the program first came to light in 2005. Rather, the court dismissed the challenge outright on the grounds that since plaintiffs can’t prove they’ve been specifically targeted (as no one short of the government itself really can), they don’t have the proper standing to sue in the first place. For privacy advocates, the dismissal is nothing short of a disaster.