Programmatic Surveillance and FISA: Of Needles in Haystacks

Beginning in 1978, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) authorized the means for electronic collection of foreign intelligence that served the nation well for many years. In Part I and Part II of this article, the author will review the FISA model for authorizing surveillance for foreign...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Texas law review 2010-06, Vol.88 (7), p.1633
Main Author: Banks, William C
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Congressional investigations
Data mining
Electronic surveillance
Federal legislation
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act 1978-US
Information technology
Law
National security
Power
Surveillance
Surveillance of citizens
Terrorism
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Summary:Beginning in 1978, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) authorized the means for electronic collection of foreign intelligence that served the nation well for many years. In Part I and Part II of this article, the author will review the FISA model for authorizing surveillance for foreign intelligence purposes and how the combination of evolving technologies and emerging terrorism threats caused FISA to become too unwieldy and inflexible to accommodate the needs for speedy and agile surveillance. In Part III, the author will describe how the Bush Administration's Terrorist Surveillance Program (TSP) led to the temporary Protect America Act (PAA), and then to the FAA and the codification of programmatic surveillance. After reviewing a FISCR decision upholding the temporary version of programmatic FISA procedures and taking note of some implementation problems with the FAA in Part IV, in Part V the author will suggest some benchmarks for rebuilding FISA from the ground up.
ISSN:0040-4411
1942-857X