So which Amendment is it that permits subordination of the Constitution to "safety from terrorism?"

[Swede Atlanta]

90. You are technically correct......

that the relevant court of competent jurisdiction determines the reasonableness of the government's requests under the 4th Amendment.

That said, the structure of the FISA court, its inner workings, etc. are SECRET. The American people have almost no visibility into the composition of the court, how members are selected or assigned, the mechanisms for MEANINGFUL oversight, etc.

From most of what we have learned for the past 20-25 years the FISA court has essentially rubber stamped anything the government has requested. Because we don't know what the legislation creating the FISA court says in terms of mission, authority, discretion, etc. there could be a rubber-stamp provision in it.

Do you really think that the government gets it right in terms of reasonable requests over 99% of the time? I think if the FISA court actually considered the facts of the case and used independent judgment we would see a much higher percentage of denials.

It is time that we the American people talk about what is reasonable. I don't want that discussion to be limited to a clandestine group of secret judges who are not accountable to ANYONE. Congress has no effective oversight of them either.