The constitution is not some sort magical selfenforcing document . It ' s a piece of paper . No matter what the supreme court says , someone has to choose to obey . I don ' t care if every supreme court justice says privacy is mankind ' s strongest right , if the executive branch decides to disobey , what can the court do ? 95 % of the time you can ' t even bring these cases to trial because the courts will make you prove the spy programs exist . No matter what evidence you drag in front of the court , the government can say those programs don ' t exist , we don ' t spy on US citizens , and get the case tossed out . If they want to be slightly more honest , they can get the case tossed for national security grounds . The courts actually have very little ability to protect our rights .