A Georgetown professor filed a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) brief arguing that the public should not have to bring a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to pry documents from the FISC. There should instead be a presumption of public access. the public should be able to monitor the FISC, its legal procedures, issues and actions the same way it has access to any federal court. Redaction can be tailored to true national security issues rather than applied wholesale to the full range of court documents. (techdirt, August 10, 2018, by Tim Cushing)
The American Civil Liberties Union wrote in February that it had filed three motions in the FISC for the release of opinions authorizing the surveillance of U.S. citizens. “The public has a First Amendment right to judicial opinions interpreting laws like Section 215 [of the Patriot Act allowing bulk collection of call records],” writes the ACLU, “and the rest of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. We can only have an informed debate about the wisdom and legality of these surveillance programs if we know what our courts have taken the law to mean and why.” (ACLU, February 216, 2018)
For previous FAC coverage on FISC, click here.