19.10.2013 - 07:00 [ Techdirt ]

Dianne Feinstein‘s Bragging About NSA Surveillance Program May Finally Result In It Being Declared Unconstitutional

This is quite an incredible story that‘s unfolding about a new opportunity for a Constitutional challenge to the FISA Amendments Act, which has enabled broad NSA surveillance. If you haven‘t been following the details (and even if you haven‘t been following all of this closely), the specifics may be a bit confusing, so we‘ll try to go piece by piece through the history here to explain the events leading up to a new Constitutional challenge being placed on the law, which the Supreme Court had previously effectively wiped out — in large part due to false information presented by the Solicitor General, who now appears to be not at all happy the intelligence community led him to lie to the Supreme Court. And it may have all unravelled because of Dianne Feinstein‘s gloating and bragging about how important the FISA Amendments Act is.