[gondramB]

Robertson was appointed to the FISA court by Chief Justice Rehnquist after Rehnquist had plenty of time to judge Robert's judicial philosophy.

And Robertson has a point in this situation. The public wanted the power to do domestic spying without a court order to be taken away from the government because the government abused that power.

The government's only legitimate powers are those granted by the people. If the government needs the power to spy on U.S citizens within the country without a warrant they should get the law changed so that they have that power.

[mewzilla]

Well, if the judge had a problem with this, why didn't he have a problem when Toon was doing it?

[El Gato]

If the government needs the power to spy on U.S citizens within the country without a warrant they should get the law changed so that they have that power.

We don't know if any of those with contacts to Al Qaeda, developed through the surveillance of foreign targets, are U.S. Citizens, no one has actually said that any were, AFAIK. I doubt if any of the critics actually know one way or the other.

[Jackson57]

If the government needs the power to spy on U.S citizens within the country without a warrant they should get the law changed so that they have that power. Given the security environment our country is in right now, that is somewhat naive. By the time they'd effectively change the law, we might not have a country to worry about. Additionally, precedent has been set time and time again for the President to assume extraordinary powers during times of war.

[7mmMag@LeftCoast]

Jabara v. Webster (1984) and U.S. v. Troung, the NSA does have that power and has had it for over 20+ years. Do not waste time citing 50 USC 1801 or 1802, these court decisions go beyond that and are the law of the land.

They do not need a warrant to intercept transmissions to or from U.S. citizens with overseas entities. They do not need a warrant when they turn that information over to the FBI.

The courts have upheld this for a long time. Willful ignorance of the facts of case law, regarding the gathering of intelligence, by the Democrats, does not make a violation by the President.