Senators say the administration is illegally withholding a secret court opinion on Section 702 surveillance abuses
CyberScoop has the timeline of promises and missed deadlines; the reported substance of the opinion is what Congress will argue about when 702 comes back up.
In an October 26 letter to Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton and Attorney General Todd Blanche, Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said a March 17, 2026 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court opinion describing "serious abuses of Americans' rights" under Section 702 was legally required to be declassified by September 13 and still has not been. They asked for its release and for the names of the officials responsible by November 6. Blanche had told the Senate Judiciary Committee he expected it out before the deadline.
According to CyberScoop, the judge objected to a filtering tool that let analysts pull information in a way that should count as a query of Americans' data, which requires extra protections. Section 702 lapsed in June after a House vote to renew it failed, but the same March opinion lets collection continue until March 2027. Civil-liberties groups urged Congress not to reauthorize 702 while the opinion stays secret. ODNI and the Justice Department did not respond to CyberScoop; Senate Intelligence Chairman Tom Cotton's office did not respond either.
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FISA of 1978 Amendments Act of 2008
After exploring Senators, rights groups say Trump administration breaking law by withholding surveillance court opinion, the law that created Section 702 is the FISA of 1978 Amendments Act of 2008.
The 2008 act of Congress that amended the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and became the legal basis for surveillance programs disclosed by Edward Snowden in 2013, including PRISM.
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Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
After exploring The US Government Is Hiding a Secret Court Ruling About How It Spies on Americans | WIRED, the law and the secret court behind it are explained in Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
The 1978 law that sets procedures for surveillance and collection of foreign intelligence on US soil, and the basis for the FISA court.
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