General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: 'Obama's new NSA proposal and Democratic partisan hackery,' by Glenn Greenwald [View all]JoePhilly
(27,787 posts)I did not say I agreed that program was unconstitutional. The supreme court would have to make that determination. I said I agreed the program should be reigned in.
Under current law, it is constitutional. As long as the warrants are going through the FISA court, its constitutional. And there have been warrants approved by the FISA court to obtain the telecom data.
You should know that when Bush was in office, he was bypassing the FISA court, and he was acting in an unconstitutional capacity.
The Obama administration has never bypassed the FISA court. They have acted within the existing laws.
This is a good example of one of my prior points ... people who don't actually know what laws exist, apparently have no idea that the Bush administration and the Obama administration have acted quite differently with regard to this program.
I think Glen does know this, and he actively works to obscure this reality.
The data belongs to the telecoms. The government has access and obtained copies, via warrants authorized by the FISA courts. That's constitutional under current law.
The President is proposing a stricter process for how the government obtains copies. That a good thing. The current laws are too broad.