&quot;&quot;____Once it has communications in its custody, those limitations no longer apply____ and the government can troll through it for whatever law enforcement purpose it wants without having to worry about getting a pesky warrant.&quot; (emphasis mine)&quot;<p>Except, I did:
This is, as i pointed out, exactly what the statute allows and has been allowed since 2002!<p>Again, see In Re: Sealed Case, 310 F.3d 717 (F.I.S.C. 2002) which makes <i>very clear</i> this is the case:
&quot;The minimization procedures allow, however, the retention and dissemination of non-foreign intelligence information which is evidence of ordinary crimes for preventative or prosecutorial purposes. See 50 U.S.C. § 1801(h) (3). &quot;<p>This isn&#x27;t new by a longshot, and it&#x27;s been okay&#x27;d by other courts other than this one, because that&#x27;s what the statute says.<p>In fact, In Re Sealed case came about, because the FISA court <i>tried to stop</i> what the EFF is complaining about, and the government appealed.  That is, their decision was &quot;you can&#x27;t use this for ordinary crimes&quot;. The government appealed, the reviewing court said fisa must allow them to use it for what they want, as per the statute.<p>So yeah, blaming the FISA court is silly, since they tried to stop this once already.<p>And calling this new or news is 14 years too late.