The Supreme Court's Decision On Government Spying Is A 'Classic Catch-22'

The New York Times' editorial board is blasting the U.S. Supreme Court for shutting down a group of Americans who were suing over an international surveillance law.

That law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, lets the feds listen in on international communications involving Americans, according to the Times.

But a majority of the Supreme Court ruled that the human rights activists, lawyers, and journalists suing over FISA didn't have "standing" to sue over the law.

Essentially, the court said they couldn't show they'd actually been hurt by FISA. From the Times:

"This is a classic Catch-22: since the surveillance is secret and no one can say for certain that their calls, e-mails and other communications have been or will be monitored, by the court’s logic no one will ever be able to show standing to bring a lawsuit."