The data was fed to the NSA without any kind of warrant. The FISA court needed to grant a warrant to the NSA to access the data they already possessed. As othe

The data was fed to the NSA without any kind of warrant. The FISA court needed to grant a warrant to the NSA to access the data they already possessed. As others have pointed out, this court was also effectively a rubber stamp machine. Between 1979 and 2015, 38,365 warrants were approved and a grand total of 12 were rejected. That's an approval rate of >99.9%.