Shamsi and Abdo 11 Hina Shamsi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Security Project and Alex Abdo, staff attorney with the National Security Project. Human rights Mag Winter 2011 Vol. 38 No. 1 Privacy and Surveillance Post-9/11 http://www.americanbar.org/publications/human_rights_magazine_ home/human_rights_vol38_2011/human_rights_winter2011/privacy_and_surveillance_post_9-11.html
Domestic law enforcement surveillance requires familiar constitutional standards to be met. Before the government can conduct surveillance, for example under ECPA, it has to show probable cause based on individualized suspicion and obtain a warrant from a court. Foreign-intelligence-gathering standards are more lax. Under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the government need not show suspicion of wrongdoing, and it can conduct electronic and covert searches domestically if the target of these searches is “foreign-intelligence information” from a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power. Unlike under ECPA, FISA surveillance orders are obtained from a secret court, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), and need not ever be made public.
