The ultra-secret court that approves government eavesdropping of terrorists and spies inside the United States rejected Tuesday an ACLU request to declassify portions of its decisions that struck down a controversial government spy program. The ACLU asked the secret court in August to review the classified orders and release the parts that made rulings on surveillance law, but the Justice Department told the court it could not and should not do so.

In its third ever publicly released decision in its 29-year history, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court denied, on national security grounds, to review the classification of earlier secret court orders that struck down a government spy program that, for five years, targeted Americans for surveillance with getting court orders.

...

"A federal court interpretation of a federal law should not be kept secret," Jaffer said. "If courts abdicate their role to oversee the classification decisions of the executive branch, it extends their unchecked power even more."

Basically, this Court interpreted a federal law, issued a decision and now the ACLU wants to see that decision, but the Court says that it believes the executive branch when it says "no, this is secret".

Where have the checks and balances gone?

Local mirror of FISC's decision deferring to the executive branch.