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.
1,846 Articles
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…
FISC OKs Section 215 Investigations of Americans, Despite First Amendment
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court declassified an opinion today which, although highly redacted, illuminates the way at least one Judge is interpreting his mandate to…
Intercept Reporting Raises Broader Metadata Minimization Question
Does the NSA minimize Americans metadata? Today’s reporting by the Intercept calls into question whether the NSA minimizes so-called metadata relating to Americans’ digital…
ODNI’s Civil Liberties Protection Officer Sets Forth Defense of 12333 Surveillance
Earlier this month, New York Times reporter Charlie Savage covered public criticisms made by John Napier Tye, a departing State Department official, of the NSA’s collection…
Disappearing People and Disappearing the Evidence: The Deeper Significance of the SSCI Report
When the executive summary of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s (SSCI) report on the CIA’s torture program is finally released, it is likely to discredit a story…
Executive Order 12333, Notice, and the Due Process Rights of Criminal Defendants
In a world of electronic surveillance and secret searches, notice is more essential than ever. Notice allows criminal defendants to test whether the government’s evidence was,…
Torture and the SSCI Report
This August, torture is once again on our minds. On the heels of President Obama’s rather callous admission that “we tortured some folks,” the Senate Select Committee on…
Spying Among Friends: The Troubled Waters of the CIA and BND
The rapid erosion of US-German relations continues to prompt much attention and consternation on both sides of the Atlantic. The new era urged by presidential candidate Barack…