"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause supported by Oath or affirmation , and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
Notes:
1. Papers and effects in the modern age includes phone calls.
2. Oath or affirmation language supported the Quakers who refused to take oaths.
3. Particularly describing, means no blanket warrants for vast groups of people.
Right now NSA is recording every cell phone call made in the US, and over a good deal of the world. They are recording the billing information ("metadata"), number called, date, and call duration. At least that's the NSA's story. Nobody has accused them of recording the contents of phone calls, yet. NSA does this routinely without a warrant.
I think we ought to go back to the old system, where the government must obtain a warrant from a real court in order to tap a phone, demand billing records from the phone company or credit card companies. The "FISA" court is not a real court, they approve every application made to them and they don't do real legal work. They are a rubber stamp. The government should get a warrant from a regular federal court, not the "FISA" rubber stamp.
As of this minute, this might happen. The original Patriot Act passed right after 9/11 expires today. The Senate failed to pass an extension yesterday. It may well come to pass, the the Patriot Act will just quietly expire. So far no one has claimed that NSA phone snoopers have actually captured any terrorists.
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