The National Freedom of Information Coalition, along with 30 other organizations, signed a Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press amicus brief in support of greater access to Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court opinions and orders. Several organizations in recent years have sought access to the specialized court’s opinions. In April 2021, the American Civil Liberties…
Tag: Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC)
New York Times Asks Court to Unseal Documents on Surveillance of Carter Page
WASHINGTON — The New York Times is asking the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to unseal secret documents related to the wiretapping of Carter Page, the onetime Trump campaign adviser at the center of a disputed memo written by Republican staffers on the House Intelligence Committee. The motion is unusual. No such wiretapping application materials apparently…
Media outlets push FISC for info on secret government surveillance
From Courthouse News Service: WASHINGTON (CN) – The once-secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has mishandled demands to reveal the government's attempted justifications of its program of collecting the call and email data of Americans, a media coalition said.
Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press filed the amicus brief with the FISC, just before Thanksgiving last week, alongside Bloomberg, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Courthouse News Service and 21 other media organizations.
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Lawmakers, groups urge secret court to reveal papers justifying NSA records programs
From Journal Gazette: WASHINGTON – In the recent stream of disclosures about National Security Agency surveillance programs, one document, sources say, has been conspicuously absent: the original – and still classified – judicial interpretation that held that the bulk collection of Americans’ data was lawful.
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Newly released secret opinion shows surveillance courts at their worst
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Justice Dept. watchdog never probed judges’ NSA concerns
From USA Today: The Justice Department's internal ethics watchdog says it never investigated repeated complaints by federal judges that the government had misled them about the NSA's secret surveillance of Americans' phone calls and Internet communications.
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NSA shares raw intelligence including Americans’ data with Israel
From The Guardian: The National Security Agency routinely shares raw intelligence data with Israel without first sifting it to remove information about US citizens, a top-secret document provided to the Guardian by whistleblower Edward Snowden reveals.
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Feds fight to prevent NSA disclosures in criminal cases
From TalkingPointsMemo: Solicitor General Donald Verrilli and Sen. Diane Feinstein have put federal prosecutors in quite a bind after they made public comments about the use of secret NSA surveillance in terrorism investigations.
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Govt to declassify some secret court opinions in response to FOIA lawsuit
From ABC News: The Justice Department is declassifying portions of some secret court orders concerning the government's authority to seize records under the Patriot Act.
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Hundreds of pages of NSA spying documents to be released
From Electronic Frontier Foundation: In a major victory in one of EFF's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits, the Justice Department conceded yesterday that it will release hundreds of documents, including FISA court opinions, related to the government’s secret interpretation of Section 215 of the Patriot Act, the law the NSA has relied upon for years to mass collect the phone records of millions of innocent Americans.
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