General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: civil war on DU [View all]stevenleser
(32,886 posts)resource for questions about such things are the appellate court decisions and the SCOTUS decisions.
When you read appellate decisions like:
US v Duggan 1984
US v Truong Dinh Hung 1980
US v Buck 1977
US v Butenko 1974
US v Brown 1973
Zweibon v Mitchell 1975
What you find is that the appellate courts have a very broad opinion of Presidential powers when it comes to foreign espionage and foreign subversion/terrorism and they view the Presidents powers to do this in these situations as exceptions to the fourth amendment. The only modification to that is FISA.
Add that to the fact that the courts do not treat metadata the same way as actual wiretapped conversations and the only real conclusion one can come to is that no, in the view of those whose expertise and responsibility it is to consider the relevant laws and constitutional rights, it is not overly broad.
You read my response about what the most senior FISA judge said in terms of how thoroughly the requests are reviewed, right?