A retired federal judge who served on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that approves government surveillance is calling for reform of the court’s duties. The FISA court has come under increased scrutiny in the aftermath of Edward Snowden’s disclosures for essentially crafting a secret, separate body of law that abets wholesale spying. The New York Times reported over the weekend the FISA court has become a “parallel Supreme Court,” issuing over a dozen classified rulings that allow the government to seize mass phone records and Internet data. The Wall Street Journal reports that in a series of orders dating back to the mid 2000s, the FISA court, or FISC, endorsed an expansion of the word “relevant” to mean “an entire database of records on millions of people.” On Tuesday, a former member of the FISA court broke ranks to say the secretive judicial body should be stopped from settling matters of policy. Speaking at a public hearing, former D.C. Circuit Judge James Robertson said: “Anyone who has been a judge will tell you a judge needs to hear both sides of a case. … This process needs an adversary.”