Noah Feldman, Columnist

U.S. Government's Snooping Is Fine by One Court

The case of a would-be bomber raises troubling questions about warrantless surveillance.

December 7, 2016 at 9:04 PM UTC

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

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Do you ever call or e-mail abroad? If so, be aware: The government could be listening, and it can use the content of those conversations against you -- without ever getting a warrant. That’s the upshot of an appeals court holding in the case of Mohamed Mohamud, who was convicted of an attempted bombing in Portland, Oregon. The decision is doubtful as a matter of constitutional law, and sooner or later, the U.S. Supreme Court will have to weigh in on the issue.

Mohamud was caught up in an FBI sting right out of a TV show, in which he was convinced to try to detonate a fake bomb at a Christmas tree lighting ceremony on the Friday after Thanksgiving in 2010. Mohamud was convicted in 2013. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has now rejected his appeals, one claiming that he was entrapped and the other claiming that the government violated his Fourth Amendment privacy rights.