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
New Resource — Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse FISA Archives
Thanks to Just Security for letting me blog today about a new resource. Obviously there have been load of disclosures about FISA matters over the past year—between the Snowden…
SCOTUS & Cell Phone Searches: Digital is Different
Today, the Supreme Court unanimously invalidated warrantless searches of cell phones incident to arrest in Riley v. California and United States v. Wurie. Full disclosure: my colleagues…
Status of CIA Detention and Interrogation Program Declassification (updated)
A few weeks ago I posted about three contexts in which the government is engaged in declassification efforts concerning the CIA’s former detention and interrogation program. …
10 Years of Drone Strikes in Pakistan–but do you know whether it’s an “area of active hostilities”?
Today marks the ten-year anniversary of the first reported US drone strike in Pakistan (punctuated by another one today). Yet there is still official silence about a crucial…
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court: Is Reform Needed?
With the advent of the Edward Snowden leaks commencing in June 2013, much has been written about Snowden and the United States intelligence community. This short blog post examines…
Covington White Paper on the Constitutionality of a FISA “Public Advocate”
As readers may recall from prior posts both here and at Lawfare, I’ve been a staunch supporter from the very beginning of the call for more adversarial process before the…
Eleventh Circuit Says No to Warrantless Cell Tracking, Calls Other Metadata Programs Into Question
Today, the Eleventh Circuit rejected the exceedingly common law enforcement practice of warrantlessly tracking suspects’ physical location using cell phone tower data. The opinion,…
Clapper to Hagel: Taliban 5 return to battle “will not appreciably change the threat” to US or Afghanistan
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel testified before the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday about the prisoner exchange involving Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl and five Guantanamo detainees…
SSCI Holds Hearing on USA FREEDOM Act
Happening now the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) is holding an open hearing on the House passed USA FREEDOM Act (H.R. 3361). For previous reaction to the House…
Is Edward Snowden Engaged in Civil Disobedience? —A Response to Glennon
In his recent post, “Is Snowden Obliged to Accept Punishment?,” Michael Glennon takes on Edward Snowden’s critics who argue that the former contractor’s unwillingness to…
DoJ Requires Electronic Recording of Interrogations – But Not in National Security Cases
In an important decision not widely reported, the Department of Justice last month adopted a policy requiring that interrogations of suspects arrested by the principal federal…
Is Snowden Obliged to Accept Punishment?
This is Secretary of State John Kerry’s answer, given May 28 on CBS This Morning: “He should man up, come back to the United States. If he has a complaint about what’s…