I found this article over at the EFF website where at some point a court had ruled that the NSA was unconstitutionally wiretapping and monitoring communications of Americans using the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act as its excuse. The article is lengthy and contains many links so I will be digesting this one for a while but I thought maybe some of you would like to read it also and get your two cents in on this as well.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/07/congress-must-act-after-us-government-admits-unconstitutional-warrantless
Quote
But it’s also important to take a step back here to understand how we know this and why that process is deeply troubling. Apparently, the secret FISA court—at some point—ruled that the government was violating the Constitution. When? We have no idea. How many Americans were affected? We don’t know that either. As Cato Institute’s Julian Sanchez pointed out, these requests can be incredibly broad—a single incident could potentially impact millions of Americans. Were there any remedies or was the NSA just given a slap on the wrist? Again, we don’t know.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/07/congress-must-act-after-us-government-admits-unconstitutional-warrantless