SEARCH AND SEIZURE

whtfucover said...

uh, the President doesn't make the laws of seach and seizure, its written in the constitution and interpreted by the courts. Its not his fault (except if he appointed the person/to a degree) that judges make up their own laws and circumvent the legislative branch. Its really more the fault of congress for not taking the bull by the horns and initializing their power of judicial review. And as far as the other tin foil hat stuff, your way out there man....wooooooooo

FISA

The FISA court was created in 1978 by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. People, organizations and embassies were spied on without their knowledge or the abiliity to challenge the survailence or searches.

Barely more than two months before the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, President Clinton expanded the powers of the FISA courts. Prior to that, all the intelligence gathered by the FISA courts were for national security purposes. After Clinton's expansion of power, the FISA courts could take their information to criminal courts.
Executive Order 12949, signed by Clinton on February 9, 1995 gave the FISA courts permission to conduct physical as well as electronic searches without having to apply for a warrent in open court or listing what evidence they are looking for. And the only probable cause was if the person was associated with a group thought to be a threat to National Security.

It is this court that is now the one responsible for the telephone eavesdropping.