Reply #18: It is my understanding that FISA was enacted following Nixon's

[JDPriestly]

abuses of the power of surveillance which Nixon exercised for, among other things, alleged security reasons.

If I am correct about that, then it would appear to me that FISA was specifically enacted to curtail the president's ability to circumvent or ignore the 4th Amendment restrictions on various kinds of surveillance.

It is incredible to me that John Yoo is teaching in a law school.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Yoo

Maybe I'm missing something, but it looks to me like he is one of these lawyers that has only worked for the government -- throughout his entire career.

That means to me that he has never had to submit his work to an ordinary state court judge. I don't think his work would be nearly so sloppy if he had begun, not as a Supreme Court clerk, but as an ordinary associate in a law firm somewhere.

At least from the Wikipedia article on him, I can't see that his ability as a lawyer was ever really put to a test. Yet he is teaching at a prestigious law school.

It's all who you know I guess.