A Note from Restore the Fourth

December 11, 2022

Recently, I was pleased to see an e-mail from Restore the Fourth show up in my in-box. They have been active in protecting us from unreasonable search and seizure (text of the amendment: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. ”)

Here’s what they say in the new e-mail:

We’re working on our New Year’s resolutions for protecting Fourth Amendment rights.

In 2023, lovers of freedom have a major opportunity. One of the key laws authorizing mass surveillance, Section 702 of the 2008 FISA Amendments Act, is set to expire. If Congress does not act, the NSA will be deprived of statutory authority for surveillance of “US-to-foreign” communications. Its vast dragnet “incidentally” captures the communications of millions of Americans without a warrant. Then, the FBI accesses that database without a warrant, for domestic law enforcement purposes, performing over 3 million searches each year. These “backdoor searches” circumvent the Fourth Amendment and permit mass domestic surveillance.

We can stop this—but we need your help.

Founded after the Snowden revelations of 2013, Restore the Fourth has already helped secure the sunset of another surveillance law, Section 215 of the Patriot Act, in 2020. The last time Section 702 was up for debate, we secured some transparency reforms. Now, with greater bipartisan support for surveillance reform, we can go further. It’s time FISA went back to authorizing surveillance on an individual, not a mass, basis. It’s time the FBI got a warrant for searches on Americans—and it’s time for the NSA and FBI to come clean, to Congress and the public, about the real scale of what they’re doing. You deserve privacy in your communications and your browsing, instead of a government agent looking over your shoulder at everything you do.

We’ll be talking with folks from Restore the Fourth to see how folks can help—they are looking for both donations and volunteers, so check back here and on their own site. These issues never completely go away; we win some battles, but so do those who would ignore our rights. As the saying goes, “the price of freedom is eternal vigilance”, so please join us and Restore the Fourth and keep watching, keep speaking out, and keep sharing information with your friends and colleagues.

1 Comment | Section 702 | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by sallijane

With the USA Freedom Act sunsetting in December – and FISA abuses in the news – it might get very interesting

November 7, 2019

When the Patriot Act was passed in 2001, and again when the FISA Amendment Act was passed in 2008, several key surveillance powers were supposed to “sunset” in a few years unless Congress voted to reauthorize them.   Which Congress has, repeatedly, usually without even introducing significant reforms.

Now it’s the USA Freedom Act’s turn to sunset, on December 15 unless it’s renewed.

As is usually the case in these sunset battles, the administration has proposed making all the authorities permanent; civil liberties advocates have proposed significant reforms; and the likely outcome is somewhere in between.  Of course, the impeachment hearings make it hard to predict what’s going to happen — how much energy does anybody have to spend on this?  But as I wrote back in 2017

Urgency increases as we get closer to the sunset mechanism’s looming deadline  — which in turn often leads to short-term extensions. It’s like watching sausage getting made, although with a lot more scary headlines and phone calls to Congress.

So buckle up!   The bulk of this post goes into more detail about the situation, but first a few things you can do right now:

As things heat up there will no doubt be plenty of opportunities for grassroots activism.  So, stay tuned!   You can follow Get FISA Right on Twitter and Facebook, and of course there are plenty of other great organizations working on this issue.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a Comment » | Section 215, Section 702 | Tagged: | Permalink
Posted by jdp23

USA Liberty Act Would Compromise Privacy

November 10, 2017

As Congress debates the “USA Liberty Act”, it is important to consider the implications for warrantless, back-door searches. The following information comes from the Brennan Center (https://www.brennancenter.org/blog/congress-cant-compromise-privacy); the entire article is worth reading to fully understand the importance of this issue and Section 702.

[T]he problem with the USA Liberty Act’s solution is not simply that it does not go far enough. In two key respects, it actually represents a step backward.

First, it would put Congress’s stamp of approval on backdoor searches. As it stands, Section 702 does not expressly authorize agencies to search for Americans’ communications. Indeed, the practice seems inconsistent with the law’s prohibition on targeting Americans, not to mention its requirement that the government minimize the retention and use of Americans’ communications. By codifying backdoor searches for foreign intelligence purposes, the USA Liberty Act would make the law worse, even if it improved on the government’s actual practice.

Even more worrisome, the USA Liberty approach would introduce a new and dangerous principle into the law: the notion that Americans have lesser rights when the government is acting with a “foreign intelligence” purpose. Currently, if the government wants to target an American directly for surveillance, it must obtain a warrant regardless of its motive. In criminal cases, the government typically obtains the warrant from a magistrate judge, while in foreign intelligence investigations, it applies to a special court known as the FISA Court. In both cases, however, the government must show probable cause of illicit activity.

There is no principled basis for lowering the standard of protection in foreign intelligence cases and allowing the government to access through the back door what it could not obtain through the front.

Leave a Comment » | Getting FISA right, regulation, Section 702, updates | Permalink
Posted by sallijane