The authority for the United States government to capture the electronic records of all Americans without warrant falls under the auspices of FISA-702. Reauthorization of the current authority is being debated. This is a deep walk into why this issue is so important to our government.
Having researched almost every aspect to the construct and the argument, I am confident FISA-702 authority underpins a much bigger, quasi-constitutional justification for the collection of U.S. citizen metadata. Without the 702 authority the legal justification for the apparatus of surveillance no longer exists. It really is that simple.
