"Solving unsolved crimes is a noble objective but it occupies a lower place in the American pantheon of noble objectives than the protection of our people from suspicionless law-enforcement searches."
This isn't suspicionless searches. At least the querying of the data isn't.
The biggest question here is whether having the info but not looking at it is the same as not having it for the courts. That'll make or break this program.
""" Q. Can analysts listen to content of domestic calls without a warrant?
A. NSA likes to use "domestic" as a weasel word here for a number of reasons. The reality is that due to the FISA Amendments Act and its section 702 authorities, Americans’ communications are collected and viewed on a daily basis on the certification of an analyst rather than a warrant. They excuse this as "incidental" collection, but at the end of the day, someone at NSA still has the content of your communications. Even in the event of "warranted" intercept, it's important to understand the intelligence community doesn't always deal with what you would consider a "real" warrant like a Police department would have to, the "warrant" is more of a templated form they fill out and send to a reliable judge with a rubber stamp. """
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/17/edward-snowden-n...
Oh, wait. They totally do that. Nevermind...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02...