When cats and dogs agree on an issue, natural curiosity encourages us to look up from our phones and take in the situation. After all, how often do natural antagonists take time to slow down, listen to each other, and find common ground?

On April 17th, 2026, Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, and Senator Dick Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, co-authored an essay in The New York Times titled We Disagree on a Lot. But We Know This Law Must Change. In it, they write:

…Congress passed a brief 10-day extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which was originally enacted in 2008 to allow the government to gather vital intelligence about foreign governments, terrorists and spies.

 

The problem is that it has also allowed agencies like the F.B.I. and the National Security Agency to regularly gather and search through the private communications of American citizens without a warrant. That is a clear violation of rights protected by the Constitution.

Recently, government overreach and decision-making have been on my mind while following Congressional debates about FISA 702. In Phones, Fashion, and Fighting for Fourth Amendment Protections, I wrote about how recent figures in American history fought to protect our right to privacy. In Do You Trust the Government with Your Private Data, I wrote about how U.S. agencies do not respect Fourth Amendment protections associated with our private data.

So, is this true, as Senators Lee and Durbin write, that federal agents engage in warrantless searches of U.S. citizens and, thereby, violate “rights protected by the Constitution”?

We address this question in Part II.