FISA Court

NSA Officially Ends Bulk Phone Metadata Collection Under USA Freedom Act

| Importance: 9/10

The NSA officially ended its bulk collection of Americans’ telephone metadata at 11:59 PM on November 29, 2015, as required by the USA Freedom Act passed by Congress in June 2015. The program, which had operated under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act since 2006, systematically collected …

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Obama Announces Limited NSA Reforms While Preserving Core Surveillance Programs

| Importance: 8/10

President Obama delivered a major address at the Department of Justice outlining reforms to NSA surveillance programs in response to Edward Snowden’s revelations, but the proposed changes left core bulk collection authorities largely intact while adding modest procedural safeguards. The speech …

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Yahoo's Secret FISA Court Battle Against PRISM Revealed

| Importance: 8/10

Declassified documents revealed that Yahoo secretly fought the NSA’s PRISM surveillance program in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court from 2007-2008, challenging the constitutionality of government demands for direct server access to user data. Yahoo argued the demands violated the …

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FISA Court Finds NSA Surveillance Programs Systematically Unconstitutional

| Importance: 9/10

Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court issues classified ruling finding NSA’s warrantless surveillance programs violated the Fourth Amendment and FISA statute on a systematic basis. The court documented that intelligence agencies had misled judges about the scope and nature of surveillance …

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FISA Court Judge Rejects NSA Warrantless Surveillance Expansion

| Importance: 8/10

FISA Court Judge Roger Vinson delivered a significant rebuke to the Bush administration by rejecting the government’s attempt to rewrite FISA statutes to permit expanded warrantless surveillance inside the United States. The government sought to stretch FISA’s definition of a …

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