[ndt]

"Look around here:"

I'm not familiar with that, I'll check it out, thanks.

"I haven't found any law banning the provision or the collection of transactional information "

I'm not sure how you think this does not apply.

§ 551 (h) (excerpted)
"A governmental entity may obtain personally identifiable information concerning a cable subscriber pursuant to a court order only if,... such entity offers clear and convincing evidence that the subject of the information is reasonably suspected of engaging in criminal activity and that the information sought would be material evidence in the case"

The statute is about telecoms which is what we are talking about, call records are most definitely personally identifiable information and the NSA is most definitely a governmental entity.

Where do you think if falls short?

[mrsmith]

"concerning a cable subscriber "
It's about cable TV.

As I said I looked and didn't see anything in there, or elsewhere, though I certainly may have missed it.

I think they used the argument that AlQueda was an immediate threat and the info would help stop them. Right after 9/11 I think it would have been a strong argument, though weaker as time went by. Qwest wasn't convinced by it apparently.