The Judicial branch is not a creature of the Legislative branch that reports to the Congress upon demand.
The FISA Court is, in fact a creation of Congress, and can be dismantled. Some have advocated exactly that, and IMO, that is not an unreasonable proposal (to dismantle the FISA court). Then, each case and any evidentiary issues would be handled in regular courts, with the regular arguments, such as "state secret" and so forth.
The system ran okay for many years without something that resembles the FISA Court.
I'd also point out something in Specter's speech that this article left out, and I think it's an important statement.
The thrust of the legislative proposal I am drafting and have talked to a number of my colleagues about, with some affirmative responses, is to require the administration to take the program to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.Specter's complete speech, as well as some comments, are at this thread.I think that they ought to do it on their own because I think that there are many questions which have been raised by both the Republicans and Democrats.
At any rate, by noting that he thinks the administration should ask of it's own is a concession that Congress' power is limited in this matter.
And to the idea that it's ludicrous of the President to submit to the Court at all, I think that at some point, contact with the Court is inevitable - at least on a case-by-case basis. It happens now, as the administration goes to the FISA Court with requests for warrants, and it happened in In re: Sealed Case, where the the government appealed certain "wall of separation" requirements and limitations imposed by a FISA Court.