National Review’s Byron York explains here.
In a little-remembered debate from 1994, the Clinton administration argued that the president has “inherent authority” to order physical searches – including break-ins at the homes of U.S. citizens – for foreign intelligence purposes without any warrant or permission from any outside body. Even after the administration ultimately agreed with Congress’s decision to place the authority to pre-approve such searches in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court, President Clinton still maintained that he had sufficient authority to order such searches on his own.
