Three days after 9/11 Congress quickly passes the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) which gives President Bush the power to:
". . . use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons."
U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez later claims the AUMF authorized wholesale warrantless wiretapping.

President Bush authorizes (in blatant violation of FISA) the National Security Agency (NSA) to intercept U.S. residents' phone calls and emails without a warrant.

During an aggressive campaign for the renewal of the USA PATRIOT Act, President Bush claims that his administration always gets a warrant before it wiretaps U.S. residents, saying, "Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires - a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so."

In a groundbreaking article, The New York Times reveals the existence of a vast and illegal NSA spying program. The Times reports that the President authorized the NSA to intercept international phone calls and emails with one end in the U.S. without any warrant, without going to the FISA court, and without probable cause, so long as the NSA believed someone on the phone might be related to terrorism.

Congress renews expiring sections of the USA PATRIOT Act. The renewal includes dozens of changes to FISA and adds some reporting requirements to provide for minimal oversight. While insisting on the law's renewal, the administration once again does not seek authority for expanded warrantless surveillance powers.

A federal district court rules that the NSA's wiretapping of Americans' telephone calls and emails without first obtaining a warrant violates FISA and the constitution and must stop. The government quickly appeals the ruling.

In a 2-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Court dismisses the ACLU lawsuit, because the plaintiffs could not state with certainty that they had been wiretapped by the NSA.

The ACLU, in the first effort of its kind, files legal papers with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) requesting that it disclose recent legal opinions discussing the scope of the government's authority to engage in secret wiretapping of U.S. residents. No entity outside the government has ever litigated before the FISC.

The ACLU gains a significant victory in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Department of Justice (DOJ) when a federal judge rejects the government's broad claims of secrecy over all documents relating to the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program. The court orders the DOJ to provide more substantial justification for its blanket secrecy claims. Also in September, U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken finds key USA PATRIOT Act provisions amending FISA to be unconstitutional in the case of Mayfield vs. United States. The case involved unconstitutional FISA surveillance of U.S. citizen and Oregon resident Brandon Mayfield who was erroneously linked to the March 11, 2004 Madrid, Spain bombing. The government subsequently appeals Judge Aiken's ruling.

The U.S. House of Representatives passes the RESTORE Act, which reins in the Protect America Act by providing at least some prior court authorization of surveillance and does not grant retroactive immunity for telecommunication companies that illegally turned over customer records to the NSA.

The U.S. House of Representatives rejects President Bush's political bullying tactics, standing up to threats, intimidation and fear-mongering by the administration by refusing to pass the Senate version of the FISA bill and allowing the Protect America Act to expire.

The U.S. House of Representatives again refuses to bow to the president's scare tactics in the bruising battle over domestic surveillance and passed its own version of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008.