U.S. intelligence agencies conducted illegal surveillance on American citizens over a five-year period, a practice that earned them a sharp rebuke from a secret court that called the matter a “very serious” constitutional issue.
The criticism is in a lengthy secret ruling that lays bare some of the frictions between the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and U.S. intelligence agencies obligated to obtain the court’s approval for surveillance activities.
This goes far beyond violations of the 4th, it also violates the “spirit”. In the colonial days, soldiers were boarded in every home, and the monitored the owners for any violation. There was no privacy among the citizens…not even in their homes or beds. Once it became known that they had the ability to remotely turn our devices on and off, and record us using both the video and audio features, it is (at a minimum) a violation of the 3rd Amendment.
Americans have given up their privacy every time they use their cell phones. NSA doesn’t have to do much.