Honestly, this isn't meaningful reassurance. I'll grant that the FISA approval rate is a bad number to look at - most approval systems eventually get into a pattern where people only submit things that will get approved.
On the other hand, saying that it's hard to get something to the court means basically nothing unless we trust that the bureaucracy and the court share our standards for "good requests". Having seen what things the FISA court has approved in the past, we can say that the system doesn't work simply because it already hasn't worked.
On the other hand, saying that it's hard to get something to the court means basically nothing unless we trust that the bureaucracy and the court share our standards for "good requests". Having seen what things the FISA court has approved in the past, we can say that the system doesn't work simply because it already hasn't worked.