Despite Hurricane, Justices Hear Surveillance Case
The rest of the government may have been shut down for the hurricane, but not the U.S. Supreme Court.
The justices were in court Monday to consider a challenge to 2008 amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA. That law broadly expanded the government's ability to conduct large-scale monitoring of international phone calls and emails to and from people in the United States.
FISA, passed in 1978, was amended in 2008 to do away with the previous requirement that the government obtain a warrant from a special intelligence court when conducting electronic surveillance of individuals abroad who had contacts in the U.S. Instead, the government can now monitor large swaths of people, and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has very limited powers of supervision.
Surveillance Act Criticized, But Can It Be Fought? Oct. 29, 2012