foreign intelligence surveillance act
Proper noun: A specific United States federal law enacted in 1978. Its primary purposes are to establish legal procedures for government agencies to seek judicial permission (a warrant) for electronic surveillance and physical searches when gathering foreign intelligence information, and to create a special court, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), to review those requests. The act was designed to regulate and oversee intelligence activities targeting foreign powers and their agents, distinguishing such activities from domestic law enforcement surveillance.
The term is used to refer specifically to this law, its provisions, and its legal framework. It is often cited in discussions about national security, privacy, government surveillance powers, and legal oversight of intelligence activities.
- The government sought authorization under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to monitor the communications.
- Reforms to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act have been debated in Congress.
- The surveillance was conducted pursuant to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
- The act is commonly referred to by its acronym FISA (pronounced /ˈfaɪsə/).
- "FISA Court" or "FISC": Refers to the special U.S. federal court established by the act to hear applications for and grant surveillance warrants.
- "FISA warrant": A warrant for surveillance or a search issued by the FISA Court.
- The act has been amended several times, notably by the USA PATRIOT Act (2001) and the FISA Amendments Act (2008), which added new provisions like those for targeting non-U.S. persons reasonably believed to be outside the U.S.
- FISA: The standard acronym for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
- Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC): The court created by the act.
- Title I of FISA: Often refers to the original provisions for electronic surveillance.
- Title III of FISA: Often refers to provisions for physical searches.
- Section 702 of FISA: A controversial amendment allowing for the targeting of non-U.S. persons located outside the U.S. for surveillance.
- FISA (This is the direct synonym as an acronym for the full name of the act.)
- National security letter: An administrative subpoena used by the FBI, related to but distinct from FISA court orders.
- Electronic Communications Privacy Act: A different U.S. law governing interception of communications, more focused on domestic law enforcement.
- Counterintelligence: The information-gathering and protective activities the FISA is designed to support.
- Warrant: The judicial authorization that FISA procedures are designed to obtain.
- an act passed by Congress in 1978 to establish procedures for requesting judicial authorization for foreign intelligence surveillance and to create the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court; intended to increase United States counterintelligence; separate from ordinary law enforcement surveillance