FISA Court Renews NSA Phone Snooping Authority

by Personal Liberty News Desk 

The secret court established by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) today reaffirmed the legality of the National Security Agency’s domestic phone metadata monitoring program, authorizing the continuation of the NSA’s collection activities for another 90 days.

Under the law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) must renew the NSA metadata collection program at 90-day intervals, which it has routinely done. But the court has come under intense scrutiny from lawmakers over the past year following Edward Snowden’s public revelation of how broad in scope the NSA’s spying efforts have been – including the wholesale, secret surveillance of the electronic communications of U.S. citizens without their knowledge.

Section 215 of the Patriot Act provides for the controversial metadata program under the FISA court’s secret warrant process. Today’s decision handed down by the FISC indirectly acknowledged the criticism the program continues to receive from lawmakers, privacy watchdogs and a significant portion of the concerned public.

“Given that legislation has not yet been enacted, and given the importance of maintaining the capabilities of the Section 215 telephony metadata program, the government has sought a 90-day reauthorization of the existing program,” said the U.S. Department of Justice and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in a prepared statement.

The reauthorization means that the FISC can continue to issue warrants for the NSA to collect, through requests emanating from a variety of government enforcement agencies, data revealing the location, timing, frequency and direction of private citizens’ electronic communications through early September, when the 90-day period expires.