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
Today’s ODNI and Section 702 News
Today, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) announced that it would stop some of the surveillance it conducts on the telecommunications backbone under authority…
Letter to the Editor: Why Concerns Over FBI Queries Under Section 702 Are Overblown
In her recent article, “Broad Warrantless Surveillance Threatens to Undermine the Criminal Justice System,” Sarah St.Vincent writes that Attorney General Jeff Sessions’…
Questions to Ask As DHS Proposes Border Drones With Facial Recognition
In what could prove to be a Frankenstein combination of invasive technologies, the Department of Homeland Security is considering a project to arm Customs and Border Patrol (CBP)…
Broad Warrantless Surveillance Threatens to Undermine the Criminal Justice System
Congressional debates about the renewal of one of the United States’ most sweeping intelligence surveillance laws are heating up. Helping to shape the discussion are several…
Letter to the Editor: The Whistleblower Protection Debate Continued
Recently, Andrew Bakaj and my former counsel, Mark Zaid, responded to my critique of their first piece on the state of national security whistleblower protections, stating We disagree,…
Letter to the Editor: Whistleblower Protections Are Getting Stronger
The March 2 article on Just Security by Patrick Eddington, titled “Whistleblower Retaliation: A Governmental Accountability and National Security Crisis,” certainly captures…
“Golden Shield” Oral Arguments Today: Doe v. Cisco
A panel of the Ninth Circuit of Appeals in San Francisco (composed of Judges Stephen Reinhardt, Wallace Tashima, and Marsha Berzon) will hear oral arguments today in the Alien…
Censorship at the Border Threatens Free Speech Everywhere
Defending one’s political and religious beliefs to government officials is an obligation we associate with life in authoritarian regimes, not open societies. It’s becoming…
Norms Watch: Tracking the Erosion of Democratic Traditions (Apr. 7-14)
Editor’s Note: Welcome to the latest installment of Norms Watch, our series tracking both the flouting of democratic norms by the Trump administration and the erosion of…
How High Was the Bar for Getting a FISA Warrant to Monitor Carter Page?
During summer of the 2016 presidential campaign, the FBI obtained a warrant from a secret court, known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, to monitor a Donald Trump…
To Senate Committee on Homeland Security: Five Questions for Secretary Kelly About Passwords Demands at the Border
On January 31, an NASA engineer and U.S. citizen, Sidd Bikkannavar, was informed by federal border agents he hat he was required to turn over the password to his smartphone on…
A Primer on the Foreign Agents Registration Act—and Related Laws Trump Officials May Have Broken
About a week ago, I wrote a pair of posts about the increasing insinuation in various camps that, if in fact the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government to influence…