The ACLU has identified 23 legal opinions that contain new or significant interpretations of surveillance law — affecting the government’s use of malware, its attempts to compel technology companies to circumvent encryption, and the CIA’s bulk collection of financial records under the Patriot Act — all of which remain secret to this day, despite an ostensible push for greater transparency following Edward Snowden’s disclosures.
The opinions were written by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. On Wednesday, the ACLU and the Yale Law School Media Freedom Clinic filed a motion with the court requesting that those opinions be released.
“The people of this country can’t hold the government accountable for its surveillance activities unless they know what our laws allow,” said Patrick Toomey, a staff attorney with the ACLU’s National Security Project. “These secret court opinions define the limits of the government’s spying powers. Their disclosure is essential for meaningful public oversight in our democracy.”
Some of the opinions identified by the ACLU offer interpretations of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a controversial provision that allows the government to conduct mass surveillance on American’s transnational communications. The authority is set to expire in December 2017.
Disclosure of the opinions would shed light on how the government understands the boundaries of its spying power. Earlier this month, for example, after Reuters reported that Yahoo is secretly scanning every customer’s incoming email, anonymous officials told the New York Times that that action was based on an individualized order from the secret court. Disclosure of the order would offer insight into why the government thinks that is legal. Yahoo, for its part, on Wednesday urged the Director of National Intelligence to release and explain the court order in question.
The ACLU identified the 23 still-secret opinions by combing through press clippings and publicly released opinions. A report released Tuesday by the Brennan Center for Justice, which was based on documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, similarly found that the government has kept classified 25 to 30 significant court opinions and orders dating from 2003 to 2013.
Congress established the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) in 1978 to approve warrants against foreign agents and spies. But after the attacks of September 11, 2001, it took on a dramatically expanded role, secretly interpreting surveillance laws for law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
The court meets in secret, and until the recent inclusion of specially designated “friends of the court,” only the government was represented before it. Critics of the FISC argue that its opinions amount to “secret law” that is not approved by Congress, and cannot be appealed.
In 2013, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that the FISC had authorized the bulk collection of American’s phone records, despite the fact that the law only allowed the collection of records “relevant to an authorized investigation.”
Calls for transparency in the wake of the Snowden disclosures prompted the government to undertake a declassification review of past FISC opinions; a process they say is still ongoing.
The Snowden disclosures also prompted Congress to pass the USA Freedom Act, which requires the government to disclose legally significant FISC opinions going forward, but the government maintains that the legal requirement does not apply to past opinions.
Top photo: The E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse in Washington D.C.
The U.S.P.S.ofA. = The United Secret Police State of America.
Secret Police, with Secret Laws and Secret Punishments.
Right out of the book of Nazi Germany.
The usa kosher media lapdogs won’t disseminate it throug the world because such tactics are worst than all the totalitarian/gestapo/dictatorial/hitlerian regimes combined where the population is kept in the dark when it comes to illegally spying and calling surveillance a non-harrasing activity and this is why the corrupt establishment ought to be dissmantled from the power of knowing the privacy of million of people who are not criminals and that is not just domestically because these are hijacking all kinds of informations, from independent discoveries or any kind, to data mining and there is only one thing that aims at such clandestine activities===novus ordos seclorum. Disgusting is short.
the fallout of the novus ordos seclorum/corrupt establishment (and their approved puppets) is one’s gullibility. — Alejandro Grace Ararat.
secret surveillance law?
is that like “jaywalking is now life in prison”?
or, “looking at a federal building for more than 15 seconds is an act of terrorism”?
WTF!?
“You are under arrest for violation of secret statutes”
“what am i charged with”?
“we cant tell you”
“what am i allowed for defence”?
“nothing. but if you plead guilty, your sentence will be less”
“i plead not guilty”
“too bad. you have been found guilty of violating secret laws. you will serve life in prison.”
“there was no trial”
“you had your trial. it was a secret. trial’s over.”
BUT it’s also an opportunity to be a lawyer who specialises in secret law – it’s a one day course, you learn nothing about nothing and voila – license to practice as a defence counsel. You get to charge your clients a bunch of money by getting them to plead guilty for a lesser sentence. With enuf cash, you could probably pay a fine.
This is completely insane.
Franklin was right so we now have what we deserve. I shillary Clinton is elected it will be the end of the american experiment. Pray that the electorate will actually read about the corruption in the 2 corporate political parties and vote for their own interest and the survival of the planet. Jill stein offers a glimmer of hope.
There is no place in a free society for secret courts, secret orders or secret opinions. I understand that on rare occasions it might be necessary to hold a hearing in camera, or to redact names or other specific information from opinions, but at a minimum the legal basis for every order or decision must be open and available to every citizen. As presently operated, the FISA Court is blatantly unconstitutional.
Makes all the sense in the world……..
Clapper, Clinton, and Cheney are free to continue their assault on the Constitution while Edward Snowden sits overseas, Julian Assange has his WiFi cut off, Jim O’Keefe gets his twitter account shut down, and Amy Goodman gets an arrest warrant for doing her job.
Well said!
What the terrorist USA government conducts against political dissidents and Arab-Americans is not surveillance; it is terrorism.
As a person included in the government’s terrorism list, twice in the last ten months the NYPD has without warrants raided my apartment at gun-point after breaking its door.
Who are the terrorists?
Oh, I don’t know. After the first five years or so of the police running around my neighborhood, using the “Citizen Corps” to spread rumors about me, I kind of got used to figuring out what sooper seekrit interpretations of law made it all possible.
I even got used to reverse engineering the tools and methods they used to stalk and harass me- or to somehow know where I was at all times, and manage to be there, whispering personal information gleaned from my personal phone calls in my ear in a checkout lane at Target.
Why expose these laws now? Some f us have been writing about these horrors for over a decade. We are what is referred to online as ‘targeted individuals.’
I often ask myself: If I had written the stry about the so-called terrorist from Somalia in a light that made him look evil- would I have had a better user experience in American “freedom?”
Or: had I not clicked the link that said ” hot young teens nakid” and gotten spammed with illicit, blackmailing CIA/NSA/FBI porn- would my life have been better? How about when I wrote about THAT?
It only got worse. You see- these secret laws are designed to destroy independent journalists as much as they are designed to put targets on anyone who practices critical thinking.
Or: how when I installed security cameras outside my house, the local PD waged a years-long campaign of drive-by’s and subterfuge in front of them?
Naw- I’ve grown too comfortable with my constant internet disconnections when PRISM slams my computer for bad thoughts….too comfortable when Socmint keyboard warriors shut down my Twitter account, or friend me only to mine me, and flag me, and eventually, twist my words into a case r two ” say Bob, he said he bombed last night”
“Is he a comedian?”
No, Bob, he’s a photographer. something about photobombing.
“Meh- put him on the lists and send a squad car out by his house.”
“Again?”
“Yeah- again”
This, for years and years before MSM journos ever heard it was happening.
That’s right! We’re all under the watchful eye of the government:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5168026
Yes Celeste, these government pricks love their military toys and weapons.
Don’t expect much from ACLU though.
Oh, Celeste! Mona Holland will have to check more bars into her Indian count about all those crazy nuts who use to call themselves using the term USG invented for them. Lately her count is getting larger and larger more interesting. NSA whistleblower powerhouses William Binney and Kirk Wiebe have stood up to denounce the new COINTELPRO, MKUltra kind of persecution and support “Targeted Individuals” worldwide
https://everydayconcerned.net/2016/10/16/nsa-whistleblower-powerhouses-william-binney-and-kirk-wiebe-stand-up-to-support-targeted-individuals-worldwide/
RCL
Seems like progress to me. Keep up the good work people. Make it all count.
Why is it that the FBI can arrest every one other than the Politicians Bureaucrats & Judges who were violating the Constitution ! Is it because they are not politically connected like some of the members of our 3 branches of Government are, and if they did arrest them, they might start talking about all the corruption they know about !
Sure makes me wonder why that is . It seems to be hap-pinging over & over with out explanation why that is Hap-pining . Is it because the political elite have exempted themselves from the law ! Sure seems to be the case. The NSA, CIA, DOJ, The Congress & the Judicial Branches of Government are always deflecting & diverting issues away from themselves & pointing the finger at someone else . The real criminals Democrats & Republicans are protecting one another !
Unaccountable power is absolute power, & is absolutely corrupt ! It is time to hold them to account both politically & legally !
UNITED STATES CODE
TITLE 18 – CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
PART I – CRIMES
CHAPTER 13 – CIVIL RIGHTS
§ 241. Conspiracy against rights
If two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any inhabitant of any State, Territory, or District in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same; or If two or more persons go in disguise on the highway, or on the premises of another, with intent to prevent or hinder his free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege so secured – They shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and if death results, they shall be subject to imprisonment for any term of years or for life.
§ 242. Deprivation of rights under color of law
Whoever, under color of any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom, willfully subjects any inhabitant of any State, Territory, or District to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or to different punishments, pains, or penalties, on account of such inhabitant being an alien, or by reason of his color, or race, than are prescribed for the punishment of citizens, shall be fined not more than $1,000 or imprisoned not more than one year, or both; and if bodily injury results shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and if death results shall be subject to
imprisonment for any term of years or for life.
“For the purpose of Section 242, acts under “color of law” include acts not only done by federal, state, or local officials within the their lawful authority, but also acts done beyond the bounds of that official’s lawful authority if the acts are done while the official is purporting to or pretending to act in the performance of his/her official duties,. Persons acting under color of law within the meaning of this statute include police officers, prisons guards and other law enforcement officials, as well as judges, care providers in public health facilities, and others who are acting as public officials. It is not necessary that the crime be motivated by animus toward the race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin of the victim. ”
FBI Web Site
Two thumbs up for the ACLU.
I half expected the last sentence to say something like-
“When asked to comment, the FISC issued a response that will remain secret, because US citizens can’t handle the truth.”