Judges Caution on Proposed Surveillance Changes Wall Street Journal (01/14/14) Gorman, Siobhan In a letter to lawmakers released on Tuesday, Judge John D. Bates, the director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts who formerly served on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), cautioned lawmakers against overhauling the judicial oversight structures currently in place for National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance activities. Written on behalf of the federal judiciary after consultation with current and former FISC judges, the letter voiced concern over giving courts a prominent oversight role, as this goes beyond the constitutional responsibility [of the courts] to decide cases and controversies. Bates also expressed concern about the proposal to add a privacy advocate to FISC, saying that having such an individual participate could be counterproductive in most instances and would not create a truly adversarial process. In addition, Bates noted that the NSA surveillance review groups proposal to require individual court orders for each FBI data request would dramatically increase FISCs workload. Bates also warned that allocating more resources would be not be enough to ensure that all of the proposed changes would be successful, as the changes would complicate the process of approving government surveillance requests and could negatively impact the ability of courts to solve national security issues.
Posted on: Thu, 16 Jan 2014 03:30:21 +0000
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