As readers probably already know, the Senate ended an otherwise largely legislation-light 2012 by approving a controversial five-year extension of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 (FAA), which the House had previously passed in September. President Obama signed the reauthorization … Read more »

John Brennan, nominated by President Obama to become the next CIA director, will apparently face some tough questioning from Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) at his Senate confirmation hearings (reportedly set for Thursday, February 7, 2:30 pm).  Sen. Wyden has sent … Read more »

Amid all the fiscal cliff hubbub, the Senate on Friday approved, and President Obama on Sunday signed, the inelegantly if accurately named “FISA Amendments Act Reauthorization Act of 2012.”  The new law extends its predecessor, the FISA Amendments Act … Read more »

The Supreme Court is not the only branch of government focused on FISA. As many Lawfare readers will recall, Congress is currently considering reauthorizing Title VII of FISA, which is scheduled to expire at the end of the … Read more »

Carrie Cordero, Georgetown’s Director of National Security Studies and a former Justice Department official, writes in with the following account of a recent Cato Institute event (which, ahem, would have been on the Lawfare calendar and the good folks … Read more »

Dozens of scholars have written a letter to complain about the constitutional basis for President Obama to ratify the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).  ACTA, for those who don’t know, is a controversial trade pact designed to tighten domestic enforcement of … Read more »

Charlie Savage of the New York Times has filed this FOIA suit in an effort to acquire a classified report issued by DOJ and ODNI to Congress “pertaining to intelligence collection authorities” under section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act … Read more »