Dear mother of Gawd, I am tired of arguing with rocks

[cheapdate]

221. Maybe you're right

in both the abstract and practical sense. The legal analysis I've read at the ACLU's website is not so certain, at least as far as how similar questions have been interpreted by the courts in earlier instances, and how the issue may be potentially interpreted by the courts in the future, especially given the laws that Congress has passed since the 1980s.

The courts have not ruled on the specific question of whether the widespread collection and retention of metadata as authorized under existing public laws, is constitutional or not. Under certain circumstances, the collection of phone data without a warrant has been ruled constitutional by the courts in other cases. Congress has passed a number of laws, as I noted earlier, that purport to provide a legal framework for the NSA's actions.

Whether or not the court will overturn any of these laws, if any challenge should somehow make it to the SCOTUS (none have so far) is an open question.

If I had my choice, the government would immediately cancel all private contracts with the NSA, freeze the programs in question, reveal the full and complete extent of the programs, and begin a open debate and discussion with Congress and the American people over all of these questions, including our values, objectives, proper constraints, tradeoffs, limitations, etc.

It's doubtful that something like that will happen, but there are encouraging signs in the Senate that some of our leaders, even some Republicans, are moving that way.