Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC)
85 Articles
FISC Approves Application to Renew Telephony Metadata Program [UPDATED]
Today, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declassified and announced that the FISC has approved the government’s application to renew the telephony metadata…
Can §215 Be Used for Content Collection?
At this week’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the National Security Agency’s surveillance authorities, Sen. Patrick Leahy posed a crucial question to the government’s…
Center for National Security Studies’ Latest Filing for Amici Curiae in Section 215 Proceedings
On Friday, the Center for National Security Studies (CNSS) filed its latest pleading in its efforts to have the FISC enable third-party persons or organizations to submit amici…
Constitutional Advocates in Comparative Perspective
A number of proposed amendments aimed at reforming the FISA Court envisage a Constitutional Advocate or similar role. Marty Lederman and Steve Vladeck posted earlier here on…
The FISC’s Problematic Pen/Trap Opinion on Bulk Internet Metadata Collection
The latest round of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court opinions released under the Freedom of Information Act includes what, for many surveillance wonks, has been the white…
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)…
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…
The Basis for the NSA’s Call-Tracking Program Has Disappeared, If It Ever Existed [Updated]
There’s a significant discrepancy, one that deserves more attention, between what the NSA told the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court five years ago about the call-tracking…
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…
Government Shutdown Postpones Declassification Review of FISC Opinion
Today, the FISC granted the government’s motion to delay a declassification review of prior FISC opinions regarding the legality of Section 215 of the Patriot Act. Contrary…
Are Internet Backbone Pen Registers Constitutional?
Between Edward Snowden’s ongoing leaks and a series of frankly unprecedented disclosures by the government itself, the public now knows quite a bit about the NSA’s…
Debate: Metadata and the Fourth Amendment – A Reply to Jennifer Granick
This post is the second in a series from Just Security‘s Jennifer Granick and Guest Author Orin Kerr debating the constitutionality of the NSA’s telephony metadata…