Resource: EPIC.org U.S. v. Moalin

The Fourth Amendment prohibits unreasonable government searches and seizures, and courts have held that generally a warrant based on probable cause should be required to conduct a search or seizure. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, 50 U.S.C. § 1861, previously authorized the government to collect business records relevant to a national security investigation; under this authority, the NSA was collecting all telephone call detail records (metadata) from major US service providers. The defendant, Basaaly Moalin, was convicted following the government's identification of him through the NSA Metadata program. Mr. Moalin has challenged both the legal basis and the constitutionality of the NSA Metadata program.