Surveillance Court needs fairer degree of oversight.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

The following editorial ran in the Detroit Free Press Oct. 1:

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While government can make a case for keeping some things confidential, no government entity should be so secret that it is virtually free of public oversight in the form of Congress. That has been the irresponsible nature of the operation of a 24-year-old secret court within the federal justice system.

Congress created the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court back in 1978, primarily to give the Justice Department a top-secret avenue to gain wiretap authority for terrorism and espionage cases. In matters where national security is at risk, investigators would not want to let ...