@rochard -- you will never convince me that the FISA court was following the intent of the FISA law when it gave blanket warrants allowing the surveillance of US Citizens domestically.

They (the FISA Court) was put in place to prevent such abuses specifically.

50 USC § 1802 => http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/50/1802
50 USC § 1805 - Issuance of order => http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/50/1805

Then NSA did violate the letter of the law and the FISA Court acquiesced to that violation.

In fact, one FISA Court Judge resigned when this whole thing started ... Federal Judges do not just pack their marbles up and leave the playground...

Quote:

Judge Resigns from Surveillance Court Dec 21, 2005 ... U.S. District Judge James Robertson was one of 11 members of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, known as FISA, until he sent his letter of resignation to Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts today. The Washington Post reported that the letter gave no reason for the resignation but said it was in protest over the president's secret authorization of the warrantless domestic spying program. ... http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=1429647