Barack Obama

wiretapping. So they do not apply to FISA and since the NSA Surveillance we are talking about involves a FISA warrant, two of the four cases this Salon article cites do not apply.

Of the other two cases, there is the Clapper vs. Amnesty International, and the unnamed case about a particular FISA warrant exceeding FISA's mandate.

The article notes that in the case of Amnesty, FISA was upheld due to standing issues (meaning the Constitutionality of FISA was not addressed one way of the other) and in the unnamed case, it was found that in that one instance, the request for a FISA warrant exceeded FISA's mandate. That is not an indictment of whether FISA is legal or Constitutional.

This Salon article does not address the dozens of appeals court cases that upheld the legality of FISA.

It also does not address WHY the appeals courts upheld FISA. The authors dont even pretend to know the reasoning why.

I lay out most of the reasoning here--> http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022981244 in particular everyone wanting to understand this should read the Duggan decision particulary the paragraph where the judges in the Duggan decision list seven other cases where FISA was upheld as Constitutional.