FISA in the news

According to a 2004 FISA report made to Congress, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court received 1758 applications for electronic surveillance and physical search.

The court approved 1754 applications. Three of the applications were withdrawn by the Government prior to the Court ruling on them. The Government withdrew four of the applications and resubmitted one. Basically, the FISA court did not deny any application made by the Government, although the report does say that it "made substantive modifications to the Government's proposed orders in 94 applications presented to the Court."

On December 21, the Washington Post reported that one of the FISA judges resigned. From that article:

"U.S. District Judge James Robertson, one of 11 members of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, sent a letter to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. late Monday notifying him of his resignation without providing an explanation."

An anonymous source quoted in the article said, "What I've heard some of the judges say is they feel they've participated in a Potemkin court."

You can read more about FISA here, here and here.

Categories: FISA Court