The Year of Section 702 Reform, Part I: Backdoor Searches

This year’s reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) — a law that authorizes broad surveillance of foreigners outside the United States to acquire foreign intelligence information— will be unlike any previous one. In the past, reauthorization was a foregone conclusion, and civil liberties advocates struggled to secure even minor procedural safeguards. But a series of recent government reports and FISA Court opinions have demonstrated that Section 702 has become a go-to domestic spying tool for the FBI, and that FBI agents are routinely violating statutory and court-ordered limits on accessing Americans’ data “incidentally” collected under Section 702. At the same time, conservative lawmakers have turned against FISA in light of the government’s flawed applications to conduct surveillance of Trump associate Carter Page. With House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan on record opposing reauthorization, it’s clear that Section 702 will not be renewed without a major overhaul.