Laura Donohue (Georgetown University Law Center) has posted Section 702 and the Collection of International Telephone and Internet Content on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
This article begins by considering the origins of the current programs and the relevant authorities — particularly the shift of the content portions of the President’s Surveillance Program, instituted just after 9/11, to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). It considers the brief operation of the Protect America Act, before its replacement in 2008 by the FISA Amendments Act.
The article then turns to statutory questions related to targeting, post-targeting analysis, and the retention and dissemination of information. It argues that the NSA has sidestepped the statutory restrictions with regard to targeting in three critical ways: by adopting procedures that allow analysts to acquire information not just to or from, but also "about" targets; by creating an assumption of non-U.S. person status; and by failing to construct procedures adequate to ascertain whether the target is located within domestic bounds.
Highly recommended.