Congressional Research Report considers the Administration's Legal Justification for domestic NSA spying are "not well-grounded"

Imagine that...Bush's legal reasoning is not "that well-grounded". If Gonzales tried to suck up to Bush any harder he may have to beware of sprayback.

Mind you, the CRS is a non-partisan research group designed to give members of the congress unbiased analyses of myriad topics. I suggest you browse them on occassion.

From the January 5, 2006 release entitled "Presidential Authority to Conduct Warrantless Electronic Surveillance to Gather Foreign Intelligence Information": [all emphasis added]

While courts have generally accepted that the President has the power to conduct
domestic electronic surveillance within the United States inside the constraints of the Fourth Amendment, no court has held squarely that the Constitution disables the Congress from endeavoring to set limits on that power. To the contrary, the Supreme Court has stated that Congress does indeed have power to regulate domestic surveillance, and has not ruled on the extent to which Congress can act with respect to electronic surveillance to collect foreign intelligence information. Given such uncertainty, the Administration’s legal justification, as presented in the summary analysis from the Office of Legislative Affairs, does not seem to be as well-grounded as the tenor of that letter suggests.

...it appears unlikely that a court would hold that Congress has expressly or impliedly authorized the NSA electronic surveillance operations here under discussion, and it would likewise appear that, to the extent that those surveillances fall within the definition of “electronic surveillance” within the meaning of FISA or any activity regulated under Title III, Congress intended to cover the entire field with these statutes.

For an excellent background on the NSA, read James Bamford's book "Body of Secrets"