Domestic Surveillance
295 Articles

Hayden, NSA, and the Road to 9/11
Retired Gen. Michael Hayden, former director of the NSA and CIA (and now, a national security analyst at CNN), has recently emerged as a leading critic of the Trump administration,…

Warrantless Backdoor Searches are Not “Business as Usual”
This week, Just Security ran two posts, one by Matt Olsen and one by Asha Rangappa, defending the government’s warrantless access to Americans’ communications obtained “incidentally”…

The Supreme Court May Be Ready to Further Limit Warrantless Access to Communications
Yesterday, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Carpenter v. United States, a case involving the privacy of cell phone location information. At issue is whether the government…

Don’t Fall for the Hype: How the FBI’s Use of Section 702 Surveillance Data Really Works
All the cool kids these days oppose the FBI’s so-called “backdoor search loophole,” which allows it to query information obtained under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence…
Episode 47 of the National Security Law Podcast: Donuts and Depth Charges
And…we’re back! Fresh off of Thanksgiving, Professor Chesney and I are (all too) fired up to discuss the latest national security law news (not to mention a bunch of stuff…

Episode 46 of the National Security Law Podcast: The $15 Million Dollar Man
In this week’s episode, your devoted hosts dig into a bonanza of national security law odds-and-ends. First up is an en banc decision by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance…

The USA Liberty Act — aka Don’t Let the Constitutional be the Enemy of the Unconstitutional
The House Judiciary Committee has completed its markup of a major surveillance reform bill intended to better protect Americans’ privacy and enhance transparency. Responding…

Modernizing ECPA: We need Congressional action despite DOJ’s new gag order guidelines
On October 24, the Justice Department announced new binding guidance designed to limit the routine use of non-disclosure orders that are used to prevent tech companies from notifying…

Episode 44 of the National Security Law Podcast: Interrogation, Prosecution, and Detention Issues in the Wake of the NYC Attack
We are back, one day after dropping episode 43, with an emergency podcast discussion the legal consequences of the horrific attack that occurred in New York City yesterday. The…
Recap of Recent Pieces on Just Security (Oct. 21-27)
Russia Investigation and Facebook Ryan Goodman, Top Experts: Can Facebook Legally Disclose Russian Ads–What does the Stored Communications Act say? Artin Afkhami, Former Federal…

Happy PATRIOT Act Day!
On this day, 16 years ago, President George W. Bush signed into law the most sweeping, publicly acknowledged domestic surveillance authority in American history. Enacted six weeks…

Treasury’s Turf War Over Domestic Spying
BuzzFeed News recently reported serious allegations that the Treasury Department’s Office of Intelligence Affairs (OIA) is illegally accessing and analyzing the financial records…