I see this a lot in NSA topics about how some new legal challenge might reverse NSA activities... Why does anyone think this will work? The NSA is accountable to the executive. The executive is responsible for enforcing laws but can selectively enforce... Why would it limit it's own power?
Intelligence agencies have a history of attempting to circumvent the limitations imposed by funding. There's a lot of evidence that the CIA has been involved in drug trafficking. In the case of the NSA, it could for example sell some of its intel to the private sector (technical and business information concerning rival companies).
Not a lawyer but one reason may be that the activities are in a legal grey area where they have secret interpretations of laws. They work hard to keep cases that involve these interpretations out of the courts because as soon as a judge declares it illegal they must stop. Kind of like asking for forgiveness rather than permission.
