FISA: Reform

Five observations about the Department of Justice Inspector General's report on the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.

The House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing today starting at 10am on the renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Earlier in 2016, Lawfare, in conjunction with the Hoover Institution’s National Security Working Group, produced a number of papers on the subject. Lawfare readers may be interested in reviewing them in connection with today’s hearing:

The court fight between Apple and FBI over access to a terrorist iPhone is just the latest chapter in the long-running tension between security professionals trying to get access to information and communications companies who hold user data. The debate is often framed as a balance between government power and individual privacy. Frequently overlooked is the critical role of the communications companies, who as physical and legal gatekeepers regulate government access to private information.

In my last post, I argued that surveillance reform is the only way to ensure continued data flows between the US and the European Union. In this post, I will begin to explore whether there is a practical way to amend US surveillance law that might satisfy the concerns expressed by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in Schrems v. Data Protection Commissioner.