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"You cite the constitution with no reference to the fact that reasonable searches are allowed under the 4th amendment. Constuctivists don’t usually edit or strike passages of the text.

To date, we have little distinction between a DB of phone company metadata and a phone book. You wouldn’t prevent the cops from using a phone book, or would you?" Well the phone book doesn't cross reference all the numbers that are connected with any other number, or the time of call, or the duration of call, does it? Or who knows what all else?

Well the phone book doesn’t cross reference all the numbers that are connected with any other number, or the time of call, or the duration of call, does it? Or who knows what all else?

But prosecutors and cops do have resources that cross-reference phone numbers with addresses and such. And with cell phones they can pick up locations and other metadata from tower logs. If the very existence of these records is a violation of the law then maybe Verizon shouldn’t be keeping them in the first place.

I’m not seeing a crime or a violation other than Snowden violating the terms of his security clearance. Conversely, nothing Obama says persuades me of anything.

Mass repositories of data are value-neutral. Like guns. It’s who uses them and for what purpose that matters. Who is using the data? For what purpose? Snowden provides nothing.