But after Sept. 11, 2001, that kinda went out the window, according to the U.S. Justice Department’s Inspector General.

One particular piece of this story, as reported by former Star-Telegram reporter Marissa Taylor, now working for our McClatchy Newspapers Washington bureau, struck me:

“In some cases, FBI agents didn’t even bother with the letters and simply asked in e-mails or Post-It notes for records related to more than 3,500 telephone numbers.”

Watchdog Nation wonders what those Post-it Notes looked like. Here are some possibilities:

All of this is too informal for us.

The Founding Fathers used much larger paper for their writings.

They created something called the Fourth Amendment:

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

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Dave Lieber, The Watchdog columnist for The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, is the founder of Watchdog Nation. The new 2010 edition of his book, Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong, is out. Revised and expanded, the book won two national book awards in 2009 for social change. Twitter @DaveLieber