OPEN UP THE DEEP STATE TO SCRUTINY: Justices Gorsuch & Sotomayor Dissenting from Refusal to Hear Case About Public Access to Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court Opinions. “This case presents questions about the right of public access to Article III judicial proceedings of grave national importance. Maybe even more fundamentally, this case involves a governmental challenge to the power of this Court to review the work of Article III judges in a subordinate court. If these matters are not worthy of our time, what is?”

This will have some people speculating about the susceptibility of justices to blackmail by these agencies. Which is ironic, since Chief Justice Roberts seems to see protecting the Supreme Court’s legitimacy as his special role.