In an unprecedented order published today, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) says that it will make public some of the legal opinions that justify the government's bulk data collection. Until now, those opinions have been secret.

It isn't clear exactly how many documents will be revealed as a result of this order from a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The court has only ordered the release of documents that do not overlap with a separate Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, also brought by the ACLU, proceeding in a New York federal court.

"For too long, the NSA's sweeping surveillance of Americans has been shrouded in unjustified secrecy," said ACLU staff lawyer Alex Abdo. "Today's ruling is an overdue rebuke of that practice. Secret law has no place in our democracy."

Either way, it's notable because it appears to be an official recognition by this key surveillance court that the public needs and deserves to know more. The order relates to "Section 215," the broadly interpreted part of the Patriot Act that allows the government to collect "any tangible things" as long as they are related to a terrorism investigation.

"Publication with only limited redactions may now be feasible, given the extent of the government's recent public disclosures about how Section 215 is implemented," states today's order, written by Judge F. Dennis Saylor. "Indeed, the government advises that a declassification review process is already underway."

The case now involves a set of "extraordinary circumstances," noted Saylor, including "(1) a particular FISC order (apparently) being unlawfully misappropriated, leaked to the press, and widely publicized; (2) the government's subsequent declassification and release of significant information about the context and legal underpinnings of that order; and (3) a high level of public and legislative interest in how the relevant statutory provision has been interpreted and whether legislative changes should be made."

All together, "[t]his unusual combination of events, among other things, means that non-parties to the Section 215 proceedings have sufficient information to make reasonably concrete, rather than abstract, arguments in favor of publication."

The unauthorized disclosure of a Section 215 order—the Snowden leak about Verizon handing over records of all US telephone calls—and government response to that disclosure, "have engendered considerable public interest and debate about Section 215. Publication of FISC opinions relating to this provision would contribute to an informed debate... Publication would also assure citizens of the integrity of this Court's proceedings."

The government has until October 4 to specify which Section 215 opinions are subject to the separate FOIA litigation and which must undergo declassification review. It will submit a proposed timetable to the court at that time.