"A challenge to a federal law that authorized intercepting international communications involving Americans appeared to face an uphill climb at the Supreme Court..."

"... on Monday, but not one quite as steep as many had anticipated," observes Adam Liptak at the NYT.

The question in the case was whether journalists, lawyers and human rights advocates could show they had been harmed and so had standing to sue, and several justices seemed open to the idea....

The possibility that the courts may never rule on the constitutionality of the law seemed to rankle some of the justices. “Is there anybody who has standing?” Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked....

Justice Antonin Scalia [said] “We’ve had cases in the past where it is clear that nobody would have standing to challenge what is brought before this court... That just proves that under our system of separated powers, it is none of our business.”

Here's the transcript.