The Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act Social Sciences Essay

The Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act
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The Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act
The Congress and/or Senate either enact constitutional amendments in the US as necessary due to political, economical, and political reasons or updating an outdated bill to produce acts that constitute the federal law. The Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act (FISA) is an example of a congressional act, which was established in 1978 to check the surveillance tactics of the executive and was brought to light again after the 9/11 attack as a reactionary preventative measure against terrorism. Through the Act, the Congress’ main objective was to strike a balance between privacy and national security by installing a framework for the government's foreign intelligence gathering. The Act regulates how the government collects and analyzes information regarding espionage and terrorism among US citizens and non-citizens residing in the country usually termed as agents of “foreign powers”. It was established to ensure that all means of electronic spying were solely for gathering and countering foreign intelligence main due to pressure from the Keith Case and Watergate Scandals. The Act has undergone several amendments like the Patriot Act and the Retroactive Immunity of 2008 that allow for government surveillance for the affiliation to any terrorist organizations either inside or outside the US. Although it has developed from the sole focus on counterintelligence and terrorism to balancing human privacy, mainly due to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, it still allows for intrusive spying measures that do not effectively help combat terrorism.[Boykin, G. (2015) “The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the Separation of Powers” University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Journal, Vol. 38. Pp. 33-62.] [Bazan, E.B. (2004) The Foreign Surveillance Acts: An Overview of the Statutory Framework and Recent Judicial Decisions. Congressional Research Service. Order Code: RL30465] [McAdams III, J.G. (2006) Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA): An Overview.]
Jurisdiction of FISA
FISA covers all matters that are concerned with threats from foreign powers and their agents or terrorism both within and without the US by consulting FISC on their applicability. It relays the regulations for government intelligence agencies on the boundaries and methods for electronic surveillance, pen register, and trace surveillance, orders on tangible evidence, as well as physical searches. However, the extensive coverage and limitations are as a result of amendments and expansions by congress to either increase the countersurveillance activities or protect human rights. Some of the congressional expansions on the act extending its jurisdiction include the 1995 physical searches and the 1998 Pen Registers and Trace Devices. The prohibition of intelligence agencies spying on Americans due to the First Amendment was included in the expansions which increased the function of FISC to check the applicability of the surveillance techniques. The Act overlaps several other acts like Financial privacy, the Wiretap Statute, Electronic Communication Privacy among others as a way revamp and expand the collection of...