Quote:

the G-man said:
...
the G-man said:even though the attorney general has the authority in some cases to undertake surveillance immediately, and then seek an emergency warrant, that process is just as cumbersome as the normal way of doing things.



Even if that is true, it's not a good reason to go around a judge. It was the President's job to then go to Congress to get something less cumbersome. Cumbersome is not an acceptable excuse to circumvent our system of checks & balances. And how cumbersome can it be to be able to do the wiretap first & then retroactively get a Judge to OK it? The other reason you list I don't understand. The NSA might have needed some shaking up but why would cutting out judicial review of the wiretaps be part of that? FISA is pretty much a rubber stamp anyway. In the last 25yrs it's turned down a total of 4 requests.


Fair play!