Thinking about this revised FISA law as I read about Oliver Wendell Holmes has raised an interesting idea. Holmes believed that "rights" exist only to the extent that the judiciary is willing to protect them. That is, what's on paper concerning, say, your privacy is only as good as the government's willingness to enforce the underlying law.
The new FISA, especially if it contains amnesty for the telecoms, is our government's way of saying that a constitutional right to privacy is passe. Cross-reference this with the quote from an administration official a while back, who said that Americans are going to have to get used to the idea of their communications being monitored. It's a fait accompli, and yet it's unconstitutional.
There will be more such adjustments to come.
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