NSA Court Judges Invest in Verizon While Surveillance Warps Law and Journalism

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/nsa_court_judges_invest_in_verizon_while_20140730

http://www.vice.com/read/the-judges-approving-nsa-surveillance-requests-keep-buying-verizon-stock-725

We must never be surprised when we learn once again that our lawmakers and law interpreters are in bed with the country’s largest corporations—this is how the American government now operates. A July 25 article in Vice includes documentation that shows three judges from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court, the tribunal that evaluates the legality of the NSA’s practices, own stock in Verizon. Although there doesn’t seem to be a direct financial incentive for judges to allow the NSA to rifle through the data (our data) of a company in which they have invested, it does show the intimate relationship the NSA, the FISA Court and Verizon share.