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.
1,837 Articles
DOJ Files Opening Brief in Klayman Appeal
It’s been some time since we’ve discussed developments related to the Section 215 telephony metadata program. More attention of late has been focused on Section 702…
Beyond the US-German Case: Understanding the Espionage “Rules of the Game”
As a former Chief of Europe Division in the CIA, I have no comment to offer concerning the Germany espionage flap, of which I know nothing, save for what I have read in the press.…
British Government’s “Fast-Track” Surveillance Legislation Proposals
On July 10, Theresa May, the Home Secretary made an oral statement in the House of Commons introducing “fast track legislation” – the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers…
Hearing Begins in New Surveillance Litigation against UK Security Services
The claim brought by Liberty, the British civil liberties’ organisation, against Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the Security Intelligence Services and the…
Nine to One, Baby, One in Nine: Surveillance by the Numbers
There’s a great deal of interesting material in this weekend’s big Washington Post story on collection of Internet communications under §702 of the FISA Amendments…
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: An unfortunate story on the non-review of U.S. surveillance authority in Section 702
Federal oversight agency punts on international human rights, while findings the programs lawful and constitutional The President’s Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (“PCLOB”)…
Did PCLOB Answer My Eight Questions About Section 702?
TL;DR: A little bit, but not enough. Yesterday, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) issued a massive report about the legally and technologically complicated…
Cloud City: A Fourth Amendment Thought Experiment
Reading the Privacy & Civil Liberties Oversight Board’s rather tepid report on NSA surveillance under §702 of the FISA Amendments Act last night, I found myself thinking…
A Response to General Dunlap
First a caveat—I have worked with many honorable national security law experts who do exceptional scholarship and whose perspective I find extremely valuable, just as I have…
Does the Intelligence Community Fear Lawyers…or Legal Scrutiny?
[Editor’s Note: See Marshall Erwin’s response to General Dunlap here.] In a provocatively entitled essay, Are National Security Lawyers a National Security Threat?…
Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board Releases Report on Section 702 Surveillance (Full Text)
On Tuesday evening, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB)—an independent body within the Executive Branch—released a major report concerning the National…
Riley v. California — An Important Step Forward, but How Far Forward?
The joined cases of Riley v. California and United States v. Wurie rightly have been hailed as a ringing endorsement of privacy in the digital age. By holding that police may…