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Court Approves Warrantless Surveillance Rules While Scolding F.B.I.
Court Approves Warrantless Surveillance Rules While Scolding F.B.I.
The release of a newly declassified ruling follows a separate decision by an appeals court that a defunct National Security Agency program was illegal.
By Charlie Savage
Sept. 5, 2020
WASHINGTON — The nation’s surveillance court found that the F.B.I. had committed “widespread violations” of rules intended to protect Americans’ privacy when analysts search through a repository of emails gathered without a warrant, but it nevertheless signed off on another year of the program, according to a newly declassified ruling.
The heavily redacted, 83-page ruling about the warrantless surveillance program was issued in December and became public on Friday after it was declassified and posted on a government website.
The release came days after a federal appeals court ruled in a different case that another, now-defunct surveillance-related program, in which the National Security Agency collected bulk logs of domestic phone calls, was illegal. The court nevertheless declined to overturn the convictions of defendants in a terrorism financing case that had included evidence derived from the program and that the government had pointed to in making the case for the program’s value.
The two programs both grew out of the Stellarwind project, a once-secret group of warrantless surveillance and bulk data collection activities that President George W. Bush started under a claim of executive power after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The programs evolved as the government tried to put them on a firmer legal footing.
[...]
The release of a newly declassified ruling follows a separate decision by an appeals court that a defunct National Security Agency program was illegal.
By Charlie Savage
Sept. 5, 2020
WASHINGTON — The nation’s surveillance court found that the F.B.I. had committed “widespread violations” of rules intended to protect Americans’ privacy when analysts search through a repository of emails gathered without a warrant, but it nevertheless signed off on another year of the program, according to a newly declassified ruling.
The heavily redacted, 83-page ruling about the warrantless surveillance program was issued in December and became public on Friday after it was declassified and posted on a government website.
The release came days after a federal appeals court ruled in a different case that another, now-defunct surveillance-related program, in which the National Security Agency collected bulk logs of domestic phone calls, was illegal. The court nevertheless declined to overturn the convictions of defendants in a terrorism financing case that had included evidence derived from the program and that the government had pointed to in making the case for the program’s value.
The two programs both grew out of the Stellarwind project, a once-secret group of warrantless surveillance and bulk data collection activities that President George W. Bush started under a claim of executive power after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The programs evolved as the government tried to put them on a firmer legal footing.
[...]
Link to ruling (PDF) :
https://www.intelligence.gov/assets/documents/702%20Documents/declassified/2019_702_Cert_FISC_Opinion_06Dec19_OCR.pdf