Check out this discussion of the FISA debate, which ends with:

…[T]he senators engaged in a debate over surveillance laws are legally barred from explaining how the nation’s surveillance laws work, because part of the law is public, but another part that supersedes the published part remains secret. (Emphasis added.)

On the other hand, McConnell and the vice president and president are equipped with declassification powers and thus are free to say whatever they like about the rulings — including inducing journalists to mislead people and describing the dire consequences of the rulings.

Such is the state of debate in a country with secret laws.

I’m not sure how we got here, nor am I sure exactly how to fix it, but I do not believe there is any reason sufficient in our republic to justify the creation of any law that every citizen may not inspect for themselves. Period. Democracies require transparency. Period.