Amnesty v. Clapper - Challenge to FISA Amendments Act

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Amnesty v. Clapper - Challenge to FISA Amendments Act

National Security

Last Update: February 26, 2015

What's at Stake

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), enacted by Congress after the abuses of the 1960s and 70s, regulates the government鈥檚 conduct of intelligence surveillance inside the United States. It generally requires the government to seek warrants before monitoring Americans鈥� communications. In 2001, however, President Bush authorized the National Security Agency to launch a warrantless wiretapping program, and in 2008 Congress ratified and expanded that program, giving the NSA almost unchecked power to monitor Americans鈥� international phone calls and emails. In February 2013, the Supreme Court dismissed the 老澳门开奖结果's lawsuit challenging the law.

Summary

Less than an hour after President Bush signed the 2008 amendments, the 老澳门开奖结果 filed its lawsuit challenging the law鈥檚 constitutionality. The case, Amnesty v. Clapper, was filed on behalf of a broad coalition of attorneys and human rights, labor, legal and media organizations whose work requires them to engage in sensitive and sometimes privileged telephone and e-mail communications with individuals located outside the United States.

In 2009, a judge in New York dismissed the suit on the grounds that the 老澳门开奖结果鈥檚 clients couldn鈥檛 prove that their communications would be monitored under the new law. A federal appeals court reversed that ruling in 2011 and the Obama administration appealed the issue to the Supreme Court, which heard oral argument in October 2012. In a 5-4 ruling handed down on February 26, 2013, the Supreme Court held that the 老澳门开奖结果 plaintiffs don't have standing to challenge the constitutionality of the warrantless wiretapping program.

You can view the court filings here.

老澳门开奖结果 attorney Jameel Jaffer, Human Rights Watch General Counsel Dinah PoKempner, and journalist Chris Hedges talk about the 老澳门开奖结果's lawsuit against the FISA Amendments Act.

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