"Patriot" Act - Section 207

spy1 · Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2004 12:12 pm Post subject: "Patriot" Act - Section 207

~ What Section 207 Does

Section 207 makes wiretap orders and physical search warrants
issued by the FISA court last longer. The FISA court is a secret
panel of judges established by the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act of 1978 to authorize government surveillance
in foreign intelligence and terrorism investigations.

~ How Section 207 Changed the Law

Prior to PATRIOT, FISA wiretaps had a maximum duration of 90
days and could be extended in 90-day increments. PATRIOT now
allows a maximum duration of 120 days, with one-year extensions
available.

Also prior to PATRIOT, FISA warrants for physical searches and
their extensions were good for no more than 45 days. Now the
warrants are good for up to 120 days, with extensions for up to
one year.

~ Why Section 207 Should Sunset

FISA wiretaps and search warrants already lack many of the
safeguards that prevent govnerment abuse of criminal taps and
warrants. For example, orders are issued using a lower legal
standard than the "probable cause" used in criminal cases and
are subject to substantially less judicial oversight, while
surveillance targets are never notified that they were spied on.
Therefore, time limits are a key check on this secret
surveillance power: they help ensure that the government
intercepts only particular conversations between particular
people, and searches only particular places for particular
evidence, regarding particular crimes, as required under
the Fourth Amendment.

The time limits for FISA wiretaps and searches were already
generous compared to taps and warrants available to the FBI
in criminal investigations. For example, regular criminal
wiretaps are issued for 30 days, with 30-day extensions
available. A 30-day criminal tap on average intercepts the
communications of nearly 100 people, most of whom are
innocent bystanders. FISA taps, which now last at least
four times as long (and sometimes up to a year!), are bound
to violate the privacy of many more innocents. Yet
PATRIOT weakened these checks without the DOJ ever having
to show that the previous time limits had hindered
earlier investigations.

Even before PATRIOT, if the time limit on a FISA wiretap or
search warrant was running out, the FBI could go back to the
FISA court for an extension, or in the case of an emergency,
could even conduct searches or wiretaps without FISA court
approval. Therefore, PATRIOT 207's extension of the FISA time
limits is an unnecessary expansion of power with only one clear
"benefit": it reduces the amount of paperwork the FBI has to
do in order to maintain continuous surveillance. This
paperwork isn't unnecessary busy work - it's a procedural
check designed to protect our rights under the U.S.
Constitution. Needlessly reducing such checks on secret
police power doesn't make us safer from terrorism. Instead,
it makes us less safe from government abuse of that power.

~ Conclusion

EFF strongly opposes renewal of Section 207, and we urge you
to oppose it, too. We also support the Security and Freedom
Ensured Act (SAFE Act, S 1709/HR 3352) and encourage you
to visit EFF's Action Center today to let your
representatives know you support the bill:
http://action.eff.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=2866

Pete


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