NSA Phone Snooping Cannot Be Challenged in Court, Feds Say
It should be noted that their position on standing comes straight from Clapper v. Amnesty International, No. 11-1025 which the Supreme Court decided in the government's favor this year.The decision is that likely targets of surveillance who cannot prove that they were ACTUALLY surveilled have no standing to file a court case where they could issue subpoenas to the government which could prove whether they were.  In short it is a catch-22.  You can't sue about being unconstitutionally searched unless you can prove it happened.  But you can't prove it happened without suing.And the Supreme Court thinks that this is acceptable.