US Gov Hides FISA Court Ruling While Seeking Renewal
Original: The US government is hiding secret court ruling about how it spies on Americans
Why This Matters
Withheld court oversight records undermine Congress's ability to set surveillance limits.
Senators Wyden and Schiff say the Trump administration is illegally withholding a secret FISA court ruling past its September 13 legal disclosure deadline, while pressing Congress to reauthorize Section 702 surveillance.
Seven months ago, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court objected to search filters allowing intelligence analysts to pull Americans' messages from intercepted data without required approvals, written justifications, or records. The court approved another year of surveillance anyway — but the ruling has never been made public.
Under the administration's own documentation, such rulings must be reviewed for public release within 180 days of issuance. That window closed September 13. Section 702 itself lapsed in June after Congress failed to renew it, though collection continues under the court's March approval.
Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Adam Schiff (D-CA) sent a demand letter to DNI Jay Clayton and AG Todd Blanche — obtained exclusively by WIRED — calling for the names of officials responsible for the delay by November 6. "If this administration won't follow this simple statutory directive," the senators wrote, "it is unclear why Congress or the American people should trust this administration to follow any of the other legal limits to Section 702."
In July, AG Blanche explicitly promised in writing to declassify the opinion by the 180-day deadline. He did not. A coalition of 23 civil liberties groups — from the ACLU to the conservative-backed Project for Privacy and Surveillance Accountability — urged Congress to refuse reauthorization while the ruling remains withheld.