Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC)
91 Articles
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…
Reforming Surveillance In the Age of Donald Trump
Above: An NSA site in Germany. On Wednesday, the Republican chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Devin Nunes (R-CA), gave a press conference in which he reported that Trump…
Incidental Collection Is Extremely Troubling, Regardless of Legality
A lot of ink has been spilled over statements by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Nunes that President Trump’s communications were incidentally collected pursuant to a surveillance…
It Ain’t Easy Getting a FISA Warrant: I Was an FBI Agent and Should Know
In his latest round of twiplash, President Trump on Saturday leveled a very serious accusation: that President Obama had personally ordered the “tapping” of telephone lines…
Just Security Event: Surveillance and the Trump Administration
Join Just Security for a fireside chat on U.S. surveillance and a celebration of Jennifer Granick‘s new book, American Spies: Modern Surveillance, Why You Should Care, And What…
Unprecedented and Unlawful: The NSA’s “Upstream” Surveillance
The FISA Amendments Act of 2008 (FAA) — the statute the government uses to engage in warrantless surveillance of Americans’ international communications — is scheduled to…
Correcting the Record on Section 702: A Prerequisite for Meaningful Surveillance Reform
The legal authority behind the controversial PRISM and Upstream surveillance programs used by the NSA to collect large swaths of private communications from leading Internet companies…
A Problematic Pseudo-Category of Surveillance Information and Promising Post-Collection Policy
This week, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declassified a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review (FISCR) opinion that has important broad implications…
It’s Time to Come to Terms With Secret Law: Part II
On Wednesday, I summarized the findings of my recent study of alleged secret law in the three branches of the US government and my conclusion that secret law is a limited but important…
It’s Time to Come to Terms With Secret Law: Part I
Secret law. The words are chilling. They evoke Kafka, unaccountable government, liberty subordinated to state security – and to some ears, perhaps simply the paranoid rantings…
Letter to the Editor: Chairman Medine’s Dedicated Service to the PCLOB Was a Testament to Bipartisanship
David Medine left the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board on July 1, 2016, after three years of dedicated service and leadership as the board’s Chairman. As the board’s…
Revelations From the Newly Declassified FISC Opinion on Section 702
Last week, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) declassified several Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) opinions from 2015. One opinion from November…