I forgot to comment on this earlier. The Attorney General has announced that the NSA will send requests to wiretap all phone conversations through the FISA court from now on (instead of only sending requests that the NSA's lawyers felt needed a warrant). Some people have commented they think this is due to the Democrats controlling Congress (trying to avoid a Congressional investigation).

I seriously doubt that the Democrats would want to "investigate" the "Terrorist Surveillance Program." The last time it was in the news, something like 80% of Americans were happy the NSA was listening in on phone calls between Al Qaeda and other people, especially when one person in the conversation was in the US. A Congressional investigation would only remind voters that the Democrats see things differently when it comes to handling terrorism.

I think the change in policy is more likely due to the EFF vs. AT&T case. There is a law requiring the government to get a warrant in certain cases, and there is another law requiring AT&T (and other companies) to see that warrant before helping the government actually perform a wiretap. The AT&T case is about AT&T not seeing that warrant because (gasp) there isn't a warrant issued. AT&T's lawyers are arguing that they had proper legal permission to help the government, but there is always a risk that the judge in that case would legally prohibit AT&T from helping in the future. And the change in policy makes a lot of that lawsuit unnecessary (especially since the plaintiffs can't say that they were spied on, only that they could have been spied on).