The Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act Social Sciences Essay

The Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act
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The Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act
The Congress and/or Senate either enact constitutional amendments in the US as necessary due to political, economical, and political reasons or updating an outdated bill to produce acts that constitute the federal law. The Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act (FISA) is an example of a congressional act, which was established in 1978 to check the surveillance tactics of the executive and was brought to light again after the 9/11 attack as a reactionary preventative measure against terrorism. Through the Act, the Congress’ main objective was to strike a balance between privacy and national security by installing a framework for the government's foreign intelligence gathering. The Act regulates how the government collects and analyzes information regarding espionage and terrorism among US citizens and non-citizens residing in the country usually termed as agents of “foreign powers”. It was established to ensure that all means of electronic spying were solely for gathering and countering foreign intelligence main due to pressure from the Keith Case and Watergate Scandals. The Act has undergone several amendments like the Patriot Act and the Retroactive Immunity of 2008 that allow for government surveillance for the affiliation to any terrorist organizations either inside or outside the US. Although it has developed from the sole focus on counterintelligence and terrorism to balancing human privacy, mainly due to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, it still allows for intrusive spying measures that do not effectively help combat terrorism.[Boykin, G. (2015) “The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the Separation of Powers” University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Journal, Vol. 38. Pp. 33-62.] [Bazan, E.B. (2004) The Foreign Surveillance Acts: An Overview of the Statutory Framework and Recent Judicial Decisions. Congressional Research Service. Order Code: RL30465] [McAdams III, J.G. (2006) Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA): An Overview.]
Jurisdiction of FISA
FISA covers all matters that are concerned with threats from foreign powers and their agents or terrorism both within and without the US by consulting FISC on their applicability. It relays the regulations for government intelligence agencies on the boundaries and methods for electronic surveillance, pen register, and trace surveillance, orders on tangible evidence, as well as physical searches. However, the extensive coverage and limitations are as a result of amendments and expansions by congress to either increase the countersurveillance activities or protect human rights. Some of the congressional expansions on the act extending its jurisdiction include the 1995 physical searches and the 1998 Pen Registers and Trace Devices. The prohibition of intelligence agencies spying on Americans due to the First Amendment was included in the expansions which increased the function of FISC to check the applicability of the surveillance techniques. The Act overlaps several other acts like Financial privacy, the Wiretap Statute, Electronic Communication Privacy among others as a way revamp and expand the collection of intelligence among American citizens. FISC and the Court of Review are some of the control mechanisms established to test the legality and extent of utilizing the liberties by intelligence services. The extent of FISA's jurisdiction is seen in the Terrorist Surveillance Program (TSP) mainly ran between 2001-2007 which used telecommunications companies to monitor electronic communication between US citizens and any linked terrorist groups. This was due to the intensification of the crackdown against terrorism after 9/11 and the implementation of the Patriot Act established to investigate the connection to domestic terrorists. The Patron Act extended the jurisdiction of FISA to cover surveillance on business records and any non-US citizens suspected of international terrorism. The FISA Amendment Act (FAA) of 2008 was also another major enactment that expanded the jurisdiction of FISA to cover investigating both US and non-US citizens residing abroad if substantially linked with international terrorism. However, for U.S. Citizens living abroad, the investigators must obtain a FISA Order from FISC or the Attorney General due to agency although the Court is notified within a week[Liu, E.C., Nolan, A., and Thompson II, R.M. (2015) Overview of Constitutional Challenges to NSA Collection Services. Congressional Research Service. 7-5700] [McAdams III (2006)] [Ibid] [Jaeger, P.T., McClure, C.R., Berrot, J.C., and Snead, J.T. (2004) The USA PATRIOT Act, The Foreign Intelligence Act, and Information Policy Research in Libraries: Issues, Impacts, and Questions for Libraries and Researchers. The Library Quarterly, University of Chicago, 74(2). pp. 99-121.] [Liu, E.C. (2008) Retroactive Immunity Provided by the FISA Amendments Act of 2008. CRS Report for Congress. Order Code: RL34600] [Lobert, J.T. (2020) Foreign Intelligence Act (FISA): An Overview. Congressional Research Service. Available at https://crsreports.congress.gov] [Liu, et al. (2015).] [Lobert (2020).]
How FISA Works: Its Major Provisions
Congress as a way to tame the government’s intelligent gathering activities set up FISA which violat...