The claim that Title III of the Wiretap Act and FISA are the exclusive means by which anyone acting under color of law may conduct domestic electronic surveillance is not a legal fiction. The statute in question-
(18 U.S.C. §2511(2)(f))-states the following:
(f) Nothing contained in this chapter or chapter 121 or 206 of this title, or section 705 of the Communications Act of 1934, shall be deemed to affect the acquisition by the United States Government of foreign intelligence information from international or foreign communications, or foreign intelligence activities conducted in accordance with otherwise applicable Federal law involving a foreign electronic communications system, utilizing a means other than electronic surveillance as defined in section 101 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, and procedures in this chapter or chapter 121 and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, shall be the exclusive means by which electronic surveillance, as defined in section 101 of such Act, and the interception of domestic wire, oral, and electronic communications may be conducted.
The wholesale circumvention of the procedures and special court established by the Foreign Information Surveillance Act should be a big red flag that the NSA program is not what the Administration claims.