Senators Ron Wyden and Adam Schiff are demanding that the Biden administration explain why it missed a September 13, 2026 deadline to declassify a secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ruling. The March 2026 ruling faulted non-compliant FBI search filters that query Americans' intercepted messages without legal authorization. A coalition of 23 civil liberties groups urges Congress to halt the reauthorization of FISA Section 702 until the administration releases the court findings.
Declassification deadline missed and senator demands
- ▪Public administration documentation specifies that secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court rulings must be reviewed for public release within 180 days of issuance, a deadline that expired on September 13, 2026.
- ▪In July 2026, Attorney General Todd Blanche committed in writing to declassifying the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ruling by the 180-day deadline.
- ▪In April 2026, Senators Tom Cotton and Mark Warner requested that the Trump administration release the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ruling within 15 days.
- ▪Senators Ron Wyden and Adam Schiff sent a letter demanding Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton and Attorney General Todd Blanche explain the missed September 13, 2026 declassification deadline and identify responsible officials by November 6, 2026.
Secret Court ruling on search filters
- ▪Despite objecting to non-compliant search filters, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court reauthorized Section 702 surveillance for another year in March 2026, with the approval expiring in March.
- ▪In March 2026, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court issued a secret ruling determining tools isolating Americans' intercepted messages constitute searches subject to legal limits, objecting to filters lacking required approvals, written justifications, or records, and ordering them rebuilt.
- ▪The U.S. Department of Justice appealed portions of the March 2026 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ruling that restricted the government's use of specific message filtering tools.
FBI participants filter uncounted searches
- ▪FBI search metrics calculated prior to 2025 excluded queries made through the 'participants filter,' which the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board noted were impossible to track.
- ▪In February 2025, the Justice Department disclosed that an FBI tool called the 'participants filter' was running uncounted searches, prompting the FBI to shut it down until a rebuilt version was approved later in 2025.
Disputes over FBI compliance metrics
- ▪In March 2026, intelligence agency fact sheets cited a 98.9 percent compliance rate for FBI queries of Americans and credited Section 702 with thwarting a planned terrorist attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna.
- ▪A U.S. Department of Justice Inspector General review published in October 2025 reported a 98.6 percent FBI querying compliance rate and concluded it could not verify that compliance issues were resolved.
FBI audit oversight
- ▪March 2026 intelligence agency fact sheets state that FBI auditors review every search of Americans conducted under Section 702.
- ▪In May 2026, FBI Director Kash Patel closed the bureau's Office of Internal Auditing and transferred its auditing staff into a separate division.
Legislative status of Section 702
- ▪Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act lapsed in June 2026 after Congress failed to pass a renewal, though intelligence gathering continues under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court's March 2026 authorization.
- ▪Surveillance-reform advocates express concern that the administration may attach a Section 702 renewal to the annual defense authorization bill scheduled for finalization in December 2026.
- ▪U.S. intelligence officials urged lawmakers to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act prior to the end of 2026.
Civil Liberties groups oppose reauthorization
- ▪On October 26, 2026, Demand Progress along with 22 civil liberties and government accountability groups urged congressional leaders not to reauthorize Section 702 while the administration withholds required surveillance rulings.
- ▪Coalitions opposing Section 702 reauthorization while FISC rulings are withheld include the American Civil Liberties Union and the conservative-backed Project for Privacy and Surveillance Accountability.
Story comments
Loading comments…