re: #289 goddamnedfrank

The legislature can make legal, constitutional tools inaccessible to law enforcement, independent of the courts.

Yeah, but my point is that the legislature can Just switch that right back again, if they want to.

So the question then becomes is the language in the P.A. the only law that authorizes the metadata program. Or alternatively, can the metadata program continue to operate absent any specific law authorizing it, relying solely on past court rulings that were themselves predicated on the existence of such laws to some degree.

This is where this all flies completely outside of my realm of knowledge. To what extent are the activities of the FBI, the DOJ, etc. established by legislation and to what extent are they executivized? I figure it’s broad legislative strokes and most of the interpretation is done on the executive side, but I don’t really know.