Clinton did it. Carter did it.
But not like this they didn't. In the first 22 years of the existence of the FISA court, it reviewed 13,102 applications, and exercised it's judicial oversight by modifying only *two*. Since 2001, the Bush administration has made 5645 such requests of the court of which a whopping 173 were rejected. Only when this became tiresome did Bush then decide to skip the judicial process and begin surveillance without a warrant.

So sure, previous (democratic and republican) administrations have asserted this authority before. Though the extent to which it was used remains unclear. What is clear however is that the degree surveillance of Americans by this administration is several orders of magnitude greater than anything we've seen before as well as a willingness on their part to completely ignore the courts when it suits them.