NY Times and intelligence leaks

[Alex]

That's simply not true that a warrant is necessary in this situation.

U.S. v. Miller removed from financial records the protection of the 4th Amendment.

See v. City of Seattle gave SC endorsement of administrative subpeonas.

The International Emergency Economic Powers Act gives the president authority to use administrative subpoenas to compel production of financial documents in a time of emergency.

In 2002 and every year since then the President has notified Congress that he was using the powers granted to him un the IEEPA to pursue terrorists globally (an expansion of the annual "terrorism" state of emergency that has been in effect for the Middle East since 1995).

The IEEPA requires that the White House report to congress on such issues. The White House, Treasury Department, and Congressional intelligence committees all say that this reporting has been happening.

You can debate the value of such a program and whether it should happen, but so far I have seen nobody raise any kind of compelling case that it was illegal. The closest the New York Times came was saying that "some legal scholars express concern about the program." The ACLU (an organization I generally support) has come right out and said it is illegal but have not said what laws were broken.