In 10 years there have been 7 wiretap requests turned down, out of over 20,000+ requests.

[kpete]

link to a PDF for stats from USCourts.gov

In 10 years there have been 7 wiretap requests turned down, out of over 20,000+ requests.
Average costs of intercepts for which costs reported: $41,119 in 2013. If I’m reading the table correctly.

HERE: http://www.uscourts.gov/uscourts/Statistics/WiretapReports/2013/Table7.pdf

[sharp_stick]

1. I kind of wonder

just how bad those requests must have been to be turned down.

[winter is coming]

2. I kind of wonder

whether they did the wiretap, anyway. And how many cases there are where they didn't bother to ask.

[randome]

3. This has been discussed endlessly.

A representative -prosecutor, attorney, whatever- takes great care to not submit a request unless they are near certain it will be approved. If you get on the bad side of a judge or a FISA court, that 'taste' lingers with them and they start to look more skeptically at anything else you submit.

It's how the system routinely works in all areas of judicial involvement.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]"There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in."
Leonard Cohen, Anthem (1992)[/center][/font][hr]

[riderinthestorm]

4. Over 2000 wiretap requests a year are approved. Less than one/year denied.

That's not trying to avoid "getting on the wrong side of the judge".

Its called a rubber stamp court.