Ongoing Case Could Expose Surveillance Courts Secrets
Timely
A current legal action, based on one senator's comments, could reveal specifics about a case where the National Security Agency may have violated the Fourth Amendment while conducting surveillance on Americans.
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, or FISC, rules in secret on requests from the NSA to access the private information of American citizens, or information hosted on U.S.-based computer systems.
Those requests became part of a media firestorm last week, when two media outlets published leaked documents that showed the federal government was actively monitoring phone calls and computer records of many Americans.
In the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the government doesn't need to establish probable cause to get a warrant or court order, and it has a lower burden of proof than usually required by the Fourth Amendment.
Hide Comments (0)
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post commentsMute this user?
Ban this user?
Un-ban this user?
Nuke this user?
Un-nuke this user?
Flag this comment?
Un-flag this comment?