Intelligence & Surveillance
Just Security’s expert authors provide legal and policy analysis of intelligence and surveillance activities, focusing on their impact on national security and on civil liberties and privacy rights, and their oversight by Congress and the courts.
1,805 Articles
Australia Introduces Foreign Fighter Bill on Eve of Obama Chairing UNSC Meeting on Foreign Fighters
The Australian Government introduced a proposed law on Sept. 22 aimed at preventing Australian residents from traveling abroad to join terrorist organizations. Called the Counter-Terrorism…
United States Stops Spying on Western Europe—for Now
The CIA has paused its espionage activities against “friendly governments in Western Europe,” according to a report by the Associated Press and ABC News that broke on Sept.…
A Year of Great Debates on National Security Law at the Just Security Blog
September 23, 2014 marks the official birthdate of Just Security. It has been a terrific first year! Our goal has been to raise and broaden the conversation on U.S. national security…
Reading Jack Goldsmith’s STELLARWIND Memo (Part II)
Last week, I tried to read between the lines of Jack Goldsmith’s 2004 memorandum on the STELLARWIND surveillance program to explain why the bulk collection of Internet metadata…
Justice Department Proposal Would Massively Expand FBI Extraterritorial Surveillance
A Department of Justice proposal to amend Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure would make it easier for domestic law enforcement to hack into computers of people…
The Posse Comitatus Act, Unlawful Surveillance, and the Exclusionary Rule
Most students of U.S. national security law are familiar with the Posse Comitatus Act (PCA) — an 1878 statute that subjects to criminal punishment anyone who, “except…
The Erosion of a Secret
Drone Timeline (Click to Enlarge) In connection with an ACLU Freedom of Information Act lawsuit pending before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the CIA has…
The Bells of September
This September 11th, I traveled with my little boy down the tree-lined beauty of Savannah to Reynolds Square where, amidst the draped Spanish Moss, historic Christ Church rang…
Reading Jack Goldsmith’s STELLARWIND Memo (Part I)
In response to a lawsuit first filed eight years ago by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the government has finally released a less-heavily-redacted version of Jack…
NYPD Uses Discovery Tactics to Deter Civil Rights Claims
The discovery stage of national security litigation rarely attracts much interest, at least where it does not involve an invocation of “state secrets” by the federal government.…
Renewed focus on statutory construction in the Section 215 litigation
C-SPAN videotaped Tuesday’s oral argument in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in ACLU v. Clapper, one of the primary challenges to the Section 215 telephony…
DOJ and ODNI Support the Senate Version of the USA FREEDOM Act
The headline won’t surprise those who have been following the surveillance reform debate. But on August 19, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Leahy sent a letter to Attorney…