US Government is hiding a secret court ruling about how it spies on Americans(wired.com)
998 points by helterskelter2 23 hours ago | 381 comments
tl;dr: Senators Wyden and Schiff accuse the Trump administration of illegally withholding a FISA court ruling from March that found intelligence agencies' filtering tools for pulling Americans' messages from intercepted data constitute searches requiring warrants and must be rebuilt. The administration missed its own 180-day declassification deadline on September 13, even as it pushes Congress to reauthorize Section 702 before the court's current approval expires in March. Critics worry the renewal may be slipped into the annual defense authorization bill to avoid debate.
HN Discussion:
  • ↑Surveillance of Americans is a bipartisan problem spanning multiple administrations
  • ↑Secret courts like FISA are fundamentally incompatible with democracy and should be abolished
  • ~Section 702 reauthorization debate is theater since surveillance will continue regardless
  • ↑Classification is being abused to hide government wrongdoing and needs strict time limits
  • ↑Wyden should use speech and debate clause protections to publicly reveal the rulings