It takes a lot of effort to protect the scales of justice: to balance the need for security with our Citizens' Constitutional claims to freedom.
Surveillance Under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)
ssd.eff.org
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FISA in Action
FISA requires the government to get search warrants and wiretap orders from a court even when it is investigating foreign threats to national security. However, the FISA process is different from the law enforcement processes described in earlier sections.
First, all government requests for foreign intelligence surveillance authorization are made to a secret court: the FISA court. In order to get authorization, a significant purpose of the surveillance must be to gather foreign intelligence information -- information about foreign spies, foreign terrorists, and other foreign threats -- instead of evidence of a crime.
Most importantly, the probable cause standard is very different. Instead of having to show probable cause that a crime is being, has been, or will be committed, the government must show that the target of the surveillance is a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power.
Also unlike law enforcement surveillance, the target is never told by the government that he/she was spied on, and every person that is served with a FISA search warrant, wiretap or pen/trap order, or subpoena is also served with a gag order forbidding them from every telling anyone about it except their lawyer.
It's a tough Job --
but someone has to do it. The Patriot Act demands it.
So how well has the FISA Court done lately "re-balancing" those scales:
DOJ Reports: FISA Court Approved Every Federal Surveillance Request
by Joe Wolverton, II, J.D., thenewamerican.com -- 11 May 2013
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As required by provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendments of 2008 (FISA) and the Patriot Act (as amended in 2005), the Department of Justice revealed to Congress the end of last month the number of applications for eavesdropping received and rejected by the FISA court.
To no one’s surprise (least of all to the architects and builders of the already sprawling surveillance state), the letter addressed to Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev.) reports that in 2012, of the 1,789 requests made by the government to monitor the electronic communications of citizens, not a single one was rejected
But that's just one year. Certainly there must be some Citizens somewhere, that the FISA Court manages to protect.
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But how “strict” is that oversight? [FISA]
The court rarely, if ever, denies the government’s requests, according to annual reports issued to senior members of Congress by the Department of Justice and collected by the Federation of American Scientists.
In 2012, the government made 1,789 applications to the court -- one was withdrawn by the government and 40 were modified by the court, but “the FISC did not deny any applications in whole or in part,” the report states. In 2011, there were 1,676 applications, of which two were withdrawn and 30 modified, but once again, “The FISC did not deny any applications in whole, or in part.” In 2010, there were 1,511 applications, of which five were withdrawn and 14 modified, but “The FISC did not deny any applications in whole, or in part.”
The FISA Court has a Tough Job ...
Starting with keeping their Office Supplies well stocked. Next!