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Foreign intelligence surveillance warrants decline in 2008: DOJ report

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] The US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Friday reported to Congress that 2,083 wiretap and search requests for investigating terrorism suspects were granted in 2008 through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a decline from 2,370 in 2007. This was the first decrease in warrants since the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) approves applications for electronic and physical surveillance warrants in regards to foreign powers or agents thereof and, in 2008, denied only one warrant application and modified two. FISA is aimed at addressing the government's need to obtain foreign intelligence information in light of privacy concerns for citizens. Obtainment of such a warrant requires probable cause to believe that a person, acting for or on behalf of a foreign power, is engaged in activities that involve or may involve a violation of criminal law. This is a lower standard than is needed in ordinary criminal investigations. In January, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review made public a ruling from August 2008 that upheld the Protect America Act, a 2007 amendment to FISA that allows warrantless wiretaps of international phone and e-mail communications. After the amendment, warrants are still required to monitor purely domestic communications. In November, Judge Henry Kennedy of the US District Court for the District of Columbia ordered the DOJ to release legal memoranda relating to the National Security Agency (NSA) warrantless domestic surveillance program. In July, the Senate voted to approve a bill amending FISA to grant retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies participating in the NSA warrantless surveillance program.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on May 18, 2009 (boomark / email).