Howard said the session was put together after colleague James Robertson resigned from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Monday.

CNN: Spy court to get secret briefing -- about secrets

Judge James Robertson is one of 11 judges appointed by the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist to serve on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, known as the FISA Court.

NPR: Spy Court Judge Resigns to Protest U.S. Surveillance

Dianne Feinstein, said she intended to review proposals for "legislation to ensure that drone strikes are carried out in a manner consistent with our values" and she suggested something similar to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

NPR: Ex-Pentagon Chief Gates OK With Drone Oversight

Here in Washington this weekend, at the annual Convention of the American Library Association, delegates got a rare peek at the workings of a secret panel - the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance court, which authorizes wiretaps on people in the United States.

NPR: Judge Remembers Time on Top Secret Bench

Preventing roving wiretaps: The Patriot Act allows federal officials, pursuant to Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court authority, to track the telecommunications of suspected terrorists, despite their efforts to defeat such monitoring by changing phones or service providers.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: 50 Patriot Act supporters warn against Act's lapse

In 1978, after Congressional investigations of the CIA, Congress passed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which set up a secret, special court inside the Justice Department to issue warrants for this kind of spying.

CNN: Limits to power

It's called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. It established a special secret court to approve national security warrants, and in the years since that court has approved 19, 000 of them and rejected just five.

NPR: Gonzalez: U.S. Surveillance Legal

They will ask why it was necessary in these 30 cases to bypass the special court set up to issue surveillance warrants under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

NPR: Justifications More Troubling Than Spying Itself