I'm not so sure of that. For example, it's not clear that Congress has the authority to create NSLs, a sort of not-a-warrant. It's not clear that they can iss

I'm not so sure of that. For example, it's not clear that Congress has the authority to create NSLs, a sort of not-a-warrant. It's not clear that they can issue gag orders like this. Even if they could do these things with warrants, they're not---and that matters. The judiciary is not meaningfully overseeing the parts of the state where law enforcement and national security intelligence mix. The FISC is a great example: it pisses off the agents and attorneys who have to deal with it, because it imposes an unholy amount of drag: they're trying to do their jobs, catch bad guys, etc.---and a FISC submission takes weeks of full-time work. But the FISC only exercises drag, not control. It can't steer---we see this because it never refuses a request. I suspect that's all one-sided proceedings can do, given the way we train our lawyers and judges. So it fails the needs of the citizens, and it doesn't protect liberty. The FISC, and NSLs, will someday be looked at with the same light as Adams' Alien & Sedition Acts: as fundamental betrayals of the American promise by an executive too scared of what might go wrong to trust the country to go right. Look, there's a lay assault on their legal and democratic authority: NSLs are not obviously a legitimate exercise of Federal authority. And for all that, if I were at the FBI and chasing a terrorist cell on American soil, I'd use one in an instant.