SURVEILLANCE: Covert FBI Power to Obtain Phone Data Faces Rare Test. “Early last year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation sent a secret letter to a phone company demanding that it turn over customer records for an investigation. The phone company then did something almost unheard of: It fought the letter in court. The U.S. Department of Justice fired back with a serious accusation. It filed a civil complaint claiming that the company, by not handing over its files, was interfering ‘with the United States’ sovereign interests’ in national security.” They told me if I voted for . . . oh, hell, you know the rest.