http://hotair.com/archives/2013/06/18/is-there-a-leak-at-the...
"Remember, in a FISA court, there is no equivalent of a defense attorney speaking on behalf of the person being investigated. It is not an adversarial court. Nobody speaks for you, Joe Citizen. The government makes its case, and the judge either says, “okay,” or “no, I’m not convinced.”"
- Since the start of the War on Terror more than 11 years ago, the court has denied just 10 applications, and modified several dozen, while approving more than 15,000.
I'm unsure whether they have the ability to remotely search my hard drive, but when you pair the existence of exploits with what appears to be widespread surveillance, I believe that the government feels that it MAY, should it ever have the capability to do it.
edit: Yes, I think they CAN remotely search your hard drive. Whether it's by installing malware over the network or by a team of experts who physically breach your security doesn't matter quite as much, other than in terms of scale.
More importantly, if the government CAN do it, you have little redress as a citizen. You can't sue them unless you can prove it happened, and even then they will argue with the power of infinite lawyers and money that it's legal anyway when the government does it.
Aren't all warrants beyond the power of the President? Isn't that the point of warrants in the first place?
Under the FISA law, a FISA warrant may be issued against US citizens if they are believed to be engaged in or preparing for acts of international terrorism or sabotage. Those warrants are beyond the power of the President.
Furthermore anyone at all, US citizen or not, under suspicion or not, may receive a FISA subpoena if the government claims that it furthers an investigation. That goes WAY beyond any authority that the executive is supposed to have.