An annual report to the United States Senate by the Justice Department shows the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court did not deny one single request made to the court by federal law enforcement. All applications to conduct electronic surveillance or “physical searches for foreign intelligence purposes” were granted. The report, signed off on by Principal Deputy [...]

As rare as it is for the Senate to have anything resembling a debate on a civil liberties issue such as privacy and government surveillance, there was a minimal amount of coverage in the establishment press of the reauthorization of the FISA Amendments Act (FAA). The law, which allows warrantless surveillance, was reauthorized for five [...]

The United States Senate reauthorized a surveillance law that grants the government expanded authority to collec communications of foreign persons outside the US. It also is believed to permit the government to engage in dragnet surveillance of Americans’ communications. The program under the FISA Amendments Act is shrouded in immense secrecy, with there being very [...]

A surveillance law that granted the government expanded authority to collect the communications of foreign persons outside the United States four years ago is set to expire in four days unless reauthorized. On Thursday, senators concerned about how the law has been interpreted in secret and how these secret interpretations permit the collection or interception [...]

A law that legalized warrantless wiretapping conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA) will be argued at the United States Supreme Court in October. The lawsuit will be heard by the Supreme Court in October. The law—the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendments Act (FAA)—is already on its way to being reauthorized by Congress, since the House [...]

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled against an Islamic charity that claimed it was the target of warrantless wiretapping by the National Security Agency when the Bush administration was in power. The ruling overturned the awarding of damages and attorneys’ fees to the charity, and found the government is immune to claims of [...]

A House Judiciary subcommittee held an oversight hearing today on the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 (FAA). The hearing was convened to examine the law before it is reauthorized this year. There was little dispute that it should be reauthorized. The debate that occurred among congresspeople was instead focused on what reforms would be reasonable [...]

The Obama Administration wants the Supreme Court to dismiss an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) challenge to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments Act, an act passed in 2008 that ACLU attorneys contend “allows dragnet surveillance of Americans’ international communications with none of the safeguards that the Constitution requires.” It filed a petition to [...]