1978. FISA is legislation that authorizes the United States govern-
Ment to set up procedures for allowing electronic monitoring, within the United States, of individuals for foreign intelligence purposes. In 1968, the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act contained provisions for authorizing the government to use electronic monitoring against criminal activities. However, it failed to answer the question of whether or not the government is required to obtain court authorization for electronic monitoring conducted for the collection of information regarding threats to national security, not for criminal investigations. FISA filled this gap by requiring court approval before the government engaged in electronic surveillance (as well as physical searches) for foreign intelligence purposes. To do this, the act established the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, consisting of U. S. District Court judges designated by the chief justice of the U. S. Supreme Court.
An application for a FISA warrant need only state facts supporting probable cause to believe that the target of the intercept or search is a foreign power, or an agent of a foreign power, and that the facilities to be monitored or searched are being used, or are about to be used, by a foreign power, or an agent of a foreign power, and to certify that the purpose of the surveillance is to obtain foreign intelligence information. The USA PATRIOT Act of 2002 modified this requirement by allowing certification that a “significant” (but not sole) purpose of the surveillance would be for foreign intelligence purposes. To show that a person is an agent of a foreign power, the government need only demonstrate that the subject is an officer or employee of a foreign power or acts on the foreign power’s behalf; or knowingly engages in clandestine intelligence-gathering activities that may involve a violation of U. S. criminal statutes; or knowingly engages in sabotage, international terrorism, or in the preparation of these activities on behalf of a foreign power.
World History
