USCA Case #14-5004 Document #1570210 Filed: 08/28/2015 5 had (under separate legal authority) already intercepted 10,000 phone calls and 20,000 emails involving one individual who is now in regular communication with one of the plaintiffs, and (4) that the government had the capacity to intercept these communications. Id. at 1157-59. The Court held that these allegations left it merely “speculative whether the Government w[ould] imminently target communications to which respondents [we]re parties,” and so provided an inadequate basis for standing. Id. at 1148-49 (citations and some quotations omitted). Here, the plaintiffs’ case for standing is similar to that rejected in Clapper. They offer nothing parallel to the Clapper plaintiffs’ evidence that the government had previously targeted them or someone they were communicating with (No. 3 above). And their assertion that NSA’s collection must be comprehensive in order for the program to be most effective is no stronger than the Clapper plaintiffs’ assertions regarding the government’s motive and capacity to target their communications (Nos. 2 & 4 above). The strength of plaintiffs’ inference from the government’s interest in having an effective program rests on an assumption that the NSA prioritizes effectiveness over all other values. In fact, there are various competing interests that may constrain the government’s pursuit of effective surveillance. Plaintiffs’ inference fails to account for the possibility that legal constraints, technical challenges, budget limitations, or other interests prevented NSA from collecting metadata from Verizon Wireless. Many government programs (even ones associated with national defense) seem to be calibrated or constrained by collateral concerns not directly related to the program’s stated objectives, such as funding deficiencies, bureaucratic inertia, poor leadership, and diversion to non-defense interests of resources nominally dedicated to defense. It is possible that such factors have Page 15 of 21