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Originally Posted by flstf
I guess the Red Sox fans will love your Jeter analogy. 
Does it bother you at all that they may require ISPs to maintain your correspondence and activity for long periods of time just on the chance that you may break the law someday? Couldn't they also then require the telcoms to record all your calls in case they may need/want them in the future? All with a warrant of course. |
I had a better analogy, but I decided it was too Chicago-centric. Unless you live here, you probably have no idea who Ronnie Woo-Woo is.
I think that you're missing one of the fundamentals of the legislation - they aren't maintaining the records because of a future crime. They want to know about the crime you're committing with these specific transactions, emails and site visits right now. If we're involved in, say, a criminal conspiracy to smuggle black market oregeno and basil into the country, they want to be able to trace it. There's nothing in this wording that gives the government the right to just go and say "we want to see all the emails from all subscribers for May 2, 2006". They need to get a warrant saying that they want to see all emails that fistf and The_Jazz have sent, most likely with a filter for only the emails we send each other unless the government can demonstrate to a judge that there are other co-conspirators.
As far as wiretaps go, I believe that the government has 30 seconds to confirm that the call involves one of the suspected conspirators or that the topic discussed is connected to the conspiracy. For instance, they could listen to our conversations with each other or the ones where I try to unload the oregeno on local pizza parlors at bargain basement prices, but they can't listen to me talking to my mom. If I'm talking to my doctor or lawyer, they have to discontinue the tap immediately since these are both inviolate conversations that the government has no right to listen to except where the doctor or lawyer is also breaking the law.
If the government wants to pay for the phone companies to record and store every phone conversation in the US, that's fine with me. Basically, it would only save them the headache of having to physically tap ever phone. The 4th Amendment would keep them away from that data except with a warrant.