THE FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE SURVEILLANCE ACT
The Federation of American Scientists: FISA
This Web site, from the Federation of American Scientists, is an archive of information and articles related to FISA. It includes a list of the judges who currently serve on the FISA court, and the text of various amendments to FISA currently pending before Congress. Of particular interest are the yearly letters from the attorney general, which state the number of FISA applications that were requested and approved for the year.
The Role of the Judiciary in the War on Terrorism
This speech was given by former FISA Court Chief Justice Royce C. Lamberth before the University of Texas School of Law's alumni association. Lamberth, who is the only FISA judge ever to have spoken publicly about the court, describes the FISA process and the changes to the law after the passage of the Patriot Act. He also discusses how FISA was used in the investigations of CIA mole Aldrich Ames and FBI spy Robert Hanssen.
The 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) was enacted as a response to public outrage over the extent of domestic spying during the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations. While recognizing that intelligence gathering is a legitimate function in the national security interest, Congress passed the law to limit the government's power to break into homes and spy on U.S. citizens.
FISA created a distinction between criminal and intelligence/counterintelligence investigations in terms of the standards the government must meet to obtain warrants for electronic surveillance. In a criminal investigation, law enforcement must show probable cause to obtain a surveillance warrant. However, to obtain a FISA warrant, it needs to prove only that there is reasonable suspicion that the target of the surveillance is "a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power" – a standard much easier to meet. The act also required that "the purpose of the surveillance is to obtain foreign intelligence information."
Under FISA, the government has to obtain court approval before sharing any knowledge gained during an intelligence investigation with criminal investigators. The act established the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, known as the FISA Court, to hear the government's case and approve both surveillance and information-sharing requests in secret. Under the law, the chief justice of the Supreme Court is required to appoint seven District Court judges to the FISA Court, which meets once a week in a secure, soundproof room in the Justice Department to hear the government's requests.
Since 1978, the FISA Court has never rejected a surveillance request. Because of this, some critics have argued that the court merely serves as a rubber stamp for the government.
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