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
New FISC Pen Register Opinion: It’s Just a Matter of Time Before Somebody Gets Hurt
Once again, the NSA has conducted illegal spying. New documents reveal the National Security Agency’s (NSA) systemic violation of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC)…
The New US “Red Line” – No Privacy Rights For Foreigners
Colum Lynch has a fascinating blog at Foreign Policy based on a leaked memo reflecting the United States’ latest “redline”: that no privacy rights be recognized for foreigners…
Early Thoughts on the New NSA Disclosures
There’s going to be a lot to say in the coming days and weeks about the more-than-six dozen surveillance-related documents declassified and disclosed yesterday by the ODNI.…
Additional documents on telephony records collection (and much more) declassified
The government today made public more documents related to the “telephony records program,” as well as other surveillance-related documents, all of which can be accessed…
Anonymous US Officials Admit CIA Accidentally Killed a Yemeni Child in a Drone Strike
Buried in a Los Angeles Times article yesterday was this remarkable government admission: In June, a drone-launched missile hit an SUV carrying an Al Qaeda commander in Yemen.…
Supreme Court Denies EPIC Petition for Mandamus on the Telephony Metadata Program
Without comment or dissent. No surprise. As expected, then, the action turns to the several cases that have been filed in district court, two of which are being argued this…
Hearing in Another Surveillance Challenge Today
In previous posts I’ve discussed filings in the two most prominent challenges to the government’s “Telephony Records Program.” Things are moving along…
Creative Ambiguity – International Law’s Distant Relationship with Peacetime Spying
In all the sound and fury over “five eye” intercept programs, commentators appear so far to have paid relatively little attention to international law. This is no simple…
More on Wittes and the Rights of Others
The debate on the privacy rights of foreign nationals goes on, at least in the blogosphere. Ben Wittes responds to my post here on Lawfare today by objecting that I have not…
More on the Rights of Others – Ben Wittes’ Failure of Imagination
Ben Wittes weighs in today on Lawfare on the side of rejecting privacy rights for anyone but U.S. citizens, aligning himself with Orin Kerr and against myself [see my previous…
Making Sense of the NSA Metadata Collection Program (Part II)
In a previous post here on Just Security, I discussed the constitutionality of the National Security Agency (NSA) program that sweeps up detailed “metadata” pertaining to essentially…
My New Paper on Standing and Secret Surveillance
Our good friend (and separation-of-powers maven) Peter Shane from (the) Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law is hosting a “virtual” symposium on NSA…