Originally Posted by Joe Obenberger

When the government goes before FISA for a warrant, it's an ex parte proceeding in secret - meaning that no one is before the court except a DOJ lawyer. There is no one present who might stand in to object on any basis. And because the order itself is secret, only the responding party will know of its existence - the service provider, never the account holder. If the service provider does not contest it, no one else ever can contest what they don't know about. It's ugly and pernicious. In this case, if I recall, the service providers have all made public comments denying that they know anything about it. Maybe they are telling the truth. Maybe the systems were hacked into without their knowledge. God knows. I don't.

The Patriot Act, I'm told, is as big as a phone book. Maybe that's hyperbolie, but it's quite big. At the time it was passed, many congressmen admitted that they had not even started to read it. For sure, not all of it has been litigated. It's been amended - and it's an extremely complex document. The odds are approximately zero that all of its provisions have been litigated and determined to be constitutionally valid.