Domestic Surveillance
291 Articles
We All Go Down Together: NSA Programs Overseas Violate Americans’ Privacy, Yet Escape FISC, Congressional Oversight
Ongoing revelations show that significant NSA surveillance activities take place outside of either Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) or congressional oversight, even…
The Government’s Initial Supreme Court Filing on the Section 215 “Telephony Records Program”
On Friday the government filed its brief in opposition to the Electronic Privacy Information Center’s mandamus petition to the Supreme Court, No. 13-58, in which EPIC is challenging…
“Relevance” at the Royale Inn
The NSA’s controversial call records program is predicated on the extraordinary premise that the phone logs of nearly all Americans are “relevant” to an intelligence…
New NSA Reform Proposal from Sen. Leahy and Rep. Sensenbrenner
While the continued government shutdown has sidelined an estimated 800,000 federal employees and resulted in the cancellation of President Obama’s trip to Asia this weekend,…
NSA Bulk Collection, the “Corporate Store,” and the Forgotten ECPA Loophole
This weekend’s New York Times report on NSA aggregation of large databases to map the social networks of US citizens contains a reminder that the vast bulk phone records…
The Kris Paper, and the Problematic FISC Opinion on the Section 215 “Metadata” Collection Program [UPDATED Oct. 14]
If you haven’t done so already, you really ought to read David Kris’s very thoughtful and comprehensive paper on the Section 215 metadata collection program, a précis…
Intelligence Oversight and Surveillance Act — Language Now Available
Yesterday, I wrote about the proposed Intelligence Oversight and Surveillance Reform Act. The language of the proposed bill is not yet available on the Library of Congress’…
Making Sense of the NSA Metadata Collection Program and the “Administrative Search” Doctrine
As most people on the planet now know, the National Security Agency obtains detailed records of the “metadata” of essentially every call – domestic and international –…
Reforming FISA: A Critical Look at the Wyden/Udall Proposal and Foreign Surveillance
A new bipartisan bill co-sponsored by two of the most vocal critics of the NSA does not go far enough to protect the average non-U.S. person from indiscriminate surveillance. …
The Coming Political Realignment?
For a summer full of remarkable moments in U.S. national security law and policy, one of the most unusual came on July 24, when an amendment to effectively de-fund the NSA’s…
Debate (Round 2): Metadata and the Fourth Amendment – A Response
This post is one in a series of posts from Just Security‘s Jennifer Granick and Guest Author Orin Kerr debating the constitutionality of the NSA’s telephony metadata…
Debate (Round 2): Metadata and the Fourth Amendment
This post is one in a series of posts from Just Security‘s Jennifer Granick and Guest Author Orin Kerr debating the constitutionality of the NSA’s telephony metadata…