Kurt Eichenwald: Contributing editor, Vanity Fair; senior writer, Newsweek; New York Times bestselling author.

snowdens leak did nothing but reveal some details about what anyone who paid attention 2 FISA amendment debate already knew

Trevor Timm: EFF at 12:58 PM on Nov 18th, 2013

Later today, the govt will pretend they're voluntarily releasing more NSA and FISA docs. They're actually being forced to by @EFF's lawsuit.

Director of National Intelligence at 8:26 PM on Nov 18th, 2013

Release of these documents reflects the Executive Branch’s continued commitment to making information about this intelligence collection program publicly available when appropriate and consistent with the national security of the United States.

Orin Kerr, Law Professor at 2:35 AM on Nov 19, 2013

Yesterday afternoon, the DNI declassified an 87-page FISC opinion authored by Judge Kollar-Kotelly that had allowed a bulk Internet metadata collection...

I’ve read the opinion, and I find its analysis quite strange...

The opinion largely overlooks the statutory clues that the pen register statute was written for the micro scale, not the macro scale. In particular, key words of the pen register statute are written in the singular not the plural. The statute authorizes the judge to issue an order requiring the installation of “a” pen register to monitor “the person who is the subject of the investigation.” This is written in the singular, suggesting that each pen register requires a subject.

Judge Kollar-Kotelly hints at this problem around pages 21-24, but as far as I can tell she never dwells on it or addresses the issue squarely. That seems like a surprising oversight for a statute based on mere certification.

If the statute allows bulk collection of all Internet metadata, it allows bulk collection of all Internet metadata purely on the AG’s say-so with no review by the FISC. And because the criminal law version of the pen register statute uses the same language but allows any AUSA to get a pen register order, the court’s reasoning would seem to allow the same bulk collection of all Internet metadata simply on the say-so of any random AUSA.

Is that really what Congress authorized?