

Feinstein just sent an email response and lists two prevented terrorist attacks - hohead

Body of email:
https:&#x2F;&#x2F;dl.dropboxusercontent.com&#x2F;u&#x2F;18790791&#x2F;feinstein.html<p>Attachment that came with the email: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;dl.dropboxusercontent.com&#x2F;u&#x2F;18790791&#x2F;Backgrounder.pdf
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mrt0mat0
I'm sick of the same arguments about this stuff, so I'm just going to say
this, "legal" and "constitutional" are not synonyms, so I wish that the
government employees would stop using them hand in hand. Just because there is
a law saying you can do it, does not make it Constitutional.

~~~
dragonwriter
Legal is a subset of Constitutional, since a purported law saying permitting
something prohibited by the Constitution is no law.

There's also a fairly decent foundation in the case law (indeed, its part of
the reason FISA was passed to constrain foreign intelligence surveillance)
that warrantless surveillance authorized by the executive for foreign
intelligence purposes (including surveillance of _Americans_ for that purpose)
is Constitutional and legal in the absence of Congressional action.

A bigger problem that conflating "legal" with "Constitutional" is conflating
either with "desirable". Just because the laws under the Constitution, or the
Constitution itself, allows something doesn't mean that it is good to do.

------
zachlatta
Got that email earlier today. Really hope she doesn't get reelected to serve
another term.

