To Director of National Intelligence Coats: The undersigned organizations write to express our dismay at your decision to abandon the effort to estimate the number of Americans whose communications are incidentally collected pursuant to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. We ask that you reconsider.

To Chair Goodlatte and Ranking Member Conyers: ... If Director Coats remains steadfast in his efforts to evade oversight by the public and this Committee, we urge you to use all powers at your disposal to obtain this number.

... As you consider the reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), we strongly urge reforms to ensure this surveillance tool is not improperly co-opted for purely domestic law enforcement purposes, and oppose any reauthorization that does not include substantial reforms. This is critical given America’s history of selective targeting, persecution, and abuse directed at persons of color, religious minorities, and dissidents when the government has obtained surveillance powers absent adequate checks and oversight.

While full details regarding the bill have not yet been made public, the undersigned groups write to express our concern that the reform as described by the New York Times and The Hill would leave the so-called “backdoor search loophole” wide open. We urge you to ensure that any reform proposal include a full fix requiring all agencies to obtain a warrant based on probable cause to search Section 702 data for information about U.S. citizens and residents in all investigations.

The government uses the backdoor search loophole to conduct warrantless searches for the information of individuals who are not targets of Section 702, including U.S. citizens and residents. Unfortunately, the Section 702 reform bill introduced last week, the USA Liberty Act [H.R. 3989], fails to address many of the concerns raised in our letter. We cannot support the USA Liberty Act at this stage without further changes to strengthen the warrant requirement for searching databases containing Section 702 information.

On behalf of a broad coalition of civil liberties organizations, we write in support of the USA RIGHTS Act [S. 1997], legislation that contains meaningful reforms to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (“FISA”), which is set to expire at year’s end. These reforms are imperative given our government’s historical abuse of surveillance authorities, contemporary noncompliance with this authority, and the danger posed by potential future abuses.

The undersigned privacy, civil rights, civil liberties, and government oversight organizations write in strong opposition to the FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act of 2017 (S. 2010). This legislation is masquerading as a moderate “reform” bill. In fact, however, it would reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act for eight years without making any meaningful reforms to better protect privacy. Indeed, in some respects, the bill represents an expansion of the government’s surveillance authorities under Section 702.

The undersigned groups write to express our strong opposition to H.R. 4478, as amended by the manager’s amendment introduced by Representative Nunes, which is scheduled to be considered at 4 p.m. today. We urge you to vote “no” on this bill. Some have suggested this bill is reform—but it is just the opposite. This bill fails to meaningfully address the litany of abuses that have occurred under Section 702, risks codifying current illegal practices, and could be read as expanding surveillance under Section 702. As such, we believe it is markedly worse than the current Section 702 statute.

NACDL joined a coalition letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee on July 30, 2013, urging Congress to evaluate how surveillance authorities, for example national security letter authorities, overlap, expand or complement the specific authorities under sections 215 and 702.

We support ending the bulk collection of all types of data under all legal authorities, while preserving the requirement of prior court approval for surveillance under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). We recognize the substantial step in this direction the House Judiciary Committee and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence took in unanimously passing the USA FREEDOM Act (H.R. 3361). … We respectfully urge you to oppose efforts to weaken these or other provisions in this historic bill.

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) commends the Judiciary Committee for holding another oversight hearing on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) scheduled to take place on October 2, 2013. ... NACDL reiterates its support of the reform measures set forth in the July letter and today makes an additional recommendation for reform as the Committee undertakes this week's hearing.

Letter to the Judicial Conference Standing Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure regarding proposed changes to procedures in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

Coalition letter to members of the Senate urging more changes to the protection of American citizens before voting on the proposed USA FREEDOM Reauthorization Act of 2020 (H.R. 6172).

Brief for Amicus Curiae National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers in Support of Appellant and Urging Reversal. 

US District Court Southern District of Florida: United States of America vs. Raees Alam Qazi & Sheheryar Alam Qazi

DEFENDANTS’ RESPONSE TO UNITED STATES’
MEMORANDUM ON THE CONSTITUTIONALITY
OF THE FISA AMENDMENTS ACT OF 2008

In The US Disctrict Courts For the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division: United States of America v. Daoud 

DEFENDANT’S MEMORANDUM OF LAW IN SUPPORT OF MOTION FOR NOTICE OF FISA AMENDMENTS ACT EVIDENCE PURSUANT TO 50 U.S.C. §§ 1881e(a), 1806(c)

MOTION FOR ADDITIONAL DISCOVERY REGARDING THE GOVERNMENT’S SURVEILLANCE AND INVESTIGATION OF DEFENDANT