How does Smith v. Maryland affect the NSA scandal, if at all?

[SteppingRazor]

in Smith v. Maryland, the Supreme Court found that it was perfectly acceptable for police to get a list of all the numbers dialed by a robbery suspect, with the aid of the phone company, despite the fact that they had no warrant:

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=442&invol=735


Will this affect the NSA scandal? I can see how, since this was a robbery suspect, not a 200-million-person fishing expedition, there's a huge difference. But will the SCOTUS see it that way? Would any court? Thoughts?

[shain from kane]

1. Fishing expedition? Don't start those fish story threads again. Better

to sit on your perch, and not open your big mouth bass.

[jrw14125]

2. "legitimate expectation of privacy"

If the phone company promises you privacy in its contract, and the law promises you privacy in the Telecom laws (complete with enforcement mechanisms for illegal violations of that policy), then a court should find that the consumer had a legitimate expectation of privacy that was both subjectively and objectively reasonable.

[Kagemusha]

4. And the courts would likewise find exceptions for legit law enforcement

which an NSA fishing expedition is most assuredly... not.

Since as I said above, they're not law enforcement in the first place.

[SteppingRazor]

5. Indeed. Smith v. Maryland IS the exception for law enforcement...

we already have no legitimate expectation of privacy over who we call -- that's established in Smith v. Maryland. The question becomes, who has the right to see this stuff?

[Kagemusha]

6. Just because it's not unreasonable search & seizure constitutionally

doesn't mean that if Congress says, nevermind that, you can't do it anyway because we say so, that somehow doing so regardless of what Congress has said, is the slightest bit legal.

Edit: And you wanna know why they did that? Because this situation we are living these last 36 hours is a full court press nightmare for the entire telecom industry and dramatically diminishes the confidence that ordinary citizens and voters have in their government, their privacy, and broadly speaking, their way of life. Congress did not want citizens to doubt that law-abiding citizens are protected except in cases of legitimate investigation and that the government does not regard its citizens as the enemy.

Well that turned out real well, didn't it.

[Kagemusha]

3. First... the NSA are not the police in any way, sense, or form.

They are spies whose job is to gather foreign intelligence for national defense (i.e. military) purposes who are barred from engaging in domestic law enforcement activity by numerous statutes, the Posse Comitatus Act, and so on and so forth.

A soldier with a uniform and gun cannot act like a police officer on American streets simply by the virtue that he is a soldier with a uniform and a gun.