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So, the government gets around that by saying the NSA is not an investigating body. It merely gathers information. The investigators still need a warrant, but once they have the warrant, they can access the NSA database.

The Fourth Amendment is fairly comprehensive:

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. My phone usage is under contract for me to have private conversations with persons of my choosing. those having the conversation or email have the reasonable expectation of privacy. If I keep a letter someone sent to me, those are MY papers. They are property. For the government to take possession of those records without a warrant is to SEIZE them, whether taken from me or the phone company. If they record my conversation, they have seized that too. Hence they need a warrant, and it had better not be a fishing license. What would be legal I suppose is for the phone company to be required to maintain the records to be available by warrant. Yet under no circumstances can I see how the NSA or any other agency can take possession of any private property without due process.

"My phone usage is under contract for me to have private conversations with persons of my choosing.

Really?

I seriously doubt that your telecom provider has made any representations to you regarding information security for a low cost consumer level service. When you make a phone call, that signal is routed as unencrypted data through the lowest cost channel available. Even worse, when you hit the send button on your email application, that message will also be sent unencrypted through the cheapest network available, possibly including server / data centers in mainland China, where I can assure they could care less about the 4th Amendment.

On the other hand, maybe you have your own dedicated T1 Line, with Type 1 Encryption, where the signal has 100% traceability, and is regularly swept for data breaches?

As far as commercial telecom is concerned, unless you pay extra for additional security - to paraphrase the judge in the NSA ruling - you have arbitrarliy ceded your right to privacy every time you talk into your phone, or hit the send button on your email server. It's not just that the NSA can get to it - anybody can get to it that has the motivation and means to do so.