> However, the Court is unable to find that NSA's minimization procedures, as the government proposes to aply them in connection with MCTs, are "reasonably designed in light of the purpose and technique of the particular [surveillance or physical search], to minimize the acquisition and retention, and prohibit the dissemination, of nonpublicly available information concerning unconsenting United States persons consistent with the need of the United States to obtain, produce and disseminate foreign intelligence information." 50 USC 1801(h)(1) & 1821(4)(a). The Court is also unable to find that NSA's targeting and minimization procedures, as the government proposes to implement them in connection with MCTs, are consistent with the Fourth Amendment. -- Page 29
> ... the government stresse that the number of protected communications acquired is relatively small in comparison to the total number of Internet communications obtained by NSA through its upstream collection. That is true enough, given the enormous volume of Internet transactions acquired by NSA through its upstream collection (approximately 26.5 million annually). But the number is small only in that relative sense. ... In absolute terms, tens of thousands of non-target, protected communications actually is a very large number. -- Page 72
> At issue here are the personal [redacted] communications of U.S. persons and persons in the United States. A person's "papers" are among the four items that are specifically listed in the Fourth Amendment as subject to protection against unreasonable search and seizure. Whether they are transmitted by letter, telephone or e-mail, a person's private communications are akin to personal papers. Indeed, the Supreme Court has held that the parties to telephone communications and the senders and recipients of written communications generally have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the contents of those communications. -- Page 73
> The Court concludes that one aspect of the proposed collection - the "upstream collection" of Internet transactions containing multiple communications, or MCTs - is, in some respects, deficient on statutory and constitutional grounds. -- Page 79
> NSA's targeting and minimization procedures, as the government proposes to apply them to MCTs as to which the "active user" is not known to be a tasked selector, are inconstistent with the requirements of the Fourth Amendment. -- Page 80