Civics: ACLU takes on Fisa court over secret decisions on surveillance laws

Spencer Ackerman:

The American Civil Liberties Union is challenging a secret court to effectively turn its back on deciding the meaning of a broad swath of surveillance and cybersecurity laws without public disclosure.

A motion the ACLU is filing on Wednesday before the controversial foreign intelligence surveillance (Fisa) court, a panel that operates in secret, argues that the first amendment requires the release of numerous classified decisions between 2001 and 2015 that have established a legal foundation for expanding the government’s surveillance activities.

Among the Fisa court opinions sought is an interpretation of the seminal Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 that many suspect will shed light on a reported Yahoo program to scan vast amounts of users’ emails.

Critics of the court, most prominently Oregon Democratic senator Ron Wyden, have said its classified rulings amount to a body of “secret law” that discard congressionally enacted privacy restrictions. The court and its supporters in government rejoinder that the extraordinary sensitivity around US surveillance practices for national security objectives necessitate the secrecy.