Line Tapping

There has been a lot of talk about Bushes unwarranted line tapping, which has been allowed under the patriot act. I am not a fan of the law personally, but I'm not sure of its illegality, and am therefore not going to blindly call the president a criminal as Al Gore did slanderously today. It may just be similar to the national governments right to taxation where a law overstepped its constitutionality (which oddly enough, though has been proven unconstitutional has not been overturned)

I've had a number of conversations on the topic and here is what I can say for sure. Whether or not you believe the phone line to be an extension of the home owners property (Which I personally do not believe,) the Fourth Amendment allows for unwarranted search of "any open space other than the land immediately surrounding a domicile" (wiki quote) which the phone line at the phone company could easily be considered. The obvious thing here though is that they still should either need the consent or a warrant for the phone company unless that has become public domain which I do question.

I welcome talkback on this, as I am not even sure on my stance any more.