Here is another depressing story, from the Washington Post, highlighting the misuse of emergency terrorism legislation to wrongfully request telephone records from 2002 to 2006.

The FBI illegally collected more than 2,000 U.S. telephone call records between 2002 and 2006 by invoking terrorism emergencies that did not exist or simply persuading phone companies to provide records, according to internal bureau memos and interviews. FBI officials issued approvals after the fact to justify their actions.

* * *

A Justice Department inspector general’s report due out this month is expected to conclude that the FBI frequently violated the law with its emergency requests, bureau officials confirmed.

When people argue that such powers do not bother them because they do nothing wrong, they have to understand that when governments are given the power to breach privacy rights without judicial review, wrongdoing almost always occurs. This behavior is inherent in governments and it is why our Constitution requires judicial approval of search warrants..