BREAKING: Federal judge rules NSA data gathering on all US telephone calls is unconstitutional

[ConservativeDemocrat]

177. The Constitution doesn't say "(*) Void during 'real' war"

Either it applies or it doesn't. Nor does it apply to foreigners. And precedents set during wartime are just as valid as they are from any other time period.

However, I will concede that neither of us know what the Supreme Court will do. They've certainly been willing to contradict nearly century-established precedents, such as the one they broke to decide Citizens United, and even the bizarre theory of making it so that Congress can't condition Federal dollars based on States enacting a policy during their "upholding" of the ACA. So heck, maybe they could suddenly decide this is a way to poke a thumb in the eye of President Obama, violate the third-party doctrine, and throw the underpinnings of law-enforcement to the wind.

But my money isn't on that.

As to your other points, I actually quite agree with you on many. The NSA seems like it is a huge waste of money. But this is often the case. Dark programs are always places where actual "waste, fraud, and abuse" live, since y definition they're not effective if they're out in public. However, since the President has already promised to rein this in, I believe him. Senator Feinstein is also a sharp cookie. And even Senator Wyden, who has clearly lost on this issue, likely improved things by providing some badly needed adversarial oversight. So pardon me if I believe that our President isn't actually "authoritarian" as the screamers believe, but actually trying to balance multiple national interests at once.

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community