Is any phone call off-limits?

From an editorial in the LA Times:

Is any phone call off-limits?
Latest NSA revelations show that the White House can't be trusted to draw the line on liberties.

Even under the Patriot Act, there are judicially supervised rules on how investigators may use technology — known as "pen registers" and "trap and trace" — that monitor telephone traffic without actually listening in on conversations. So the legality of this program is debatable at best. Congress, which has shown no backbone for challenging the previously revealed NSA program, must press the administration to explain and try to justify this much more pervasive operation.
Of course, the administration can be expected to argue that almost anything is permitted under its expansive notions of the president's powers in the war on terrorism — and, at the same time, that this president has always exercised those powers judiciously. On Thursday, Hayden insisted that "everything that NSA does is lawful and very carefully done," while Bush said that "the privacy of ordinary Americans is fiercely protected in all our activities."
In other words: Trust us.