More FISC Details: Between July 1 and September 30, 24.4% of FISC Applications Saw Substantive Changes
In July, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court undertook to collect more detailed statistics than those required by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Among other things, the latter calls for an annual tally of surveillance applications made, and a tally of those granted, modified, or denied. Of course, each year, over 99% of U.S. submissions made to the FISC receive court approval.
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In July, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court undertook to collect more detailed statistics than those required by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Among other things, the latter calls for an annual tally of surveillance applications made, and a tally of those granted, modified, or denied. Of course, each year, over 99% of U.S. submissions made to the FISC receive court approval. But that isn't the whole story, judging by this letter, sent last week from the FISC's Presiding Judge Reggie Walton to members of Congress. In it, the Judge Walton reveals the extent to which, during the first quarter of FY2013, government applications were modified during the FISC process.
Of the total submissions the Department of Justice made between July 1 and September 30 to the FISC, 24.4% received "substantives changes to the information provided by the government or to the authorities granted as a result of Court inquiry or action." The FISC does not count typo corrections as "substantive changes."
The letter further says that the first quarter data represent "an attempt to measure the results of what are, typically, informal communications between the branches." According to the letter, the FISC will continue to collect such information---in order to ascertain whether the first quarter data presents an aberration or a trend---and report to Congress and the public going forward.
Raffaela Wakeman is a Senior Director at In-Q-Tel. She started her career at the Brookings Institution, where she spent five years conducting research on national security, election reform, and Congress. During this time she was also the Associate Editor of Lawfare. From there, Raffaela practiced law at the U.S. Department of Defense for four years, advising her clients on privacy and surveillance law, cybersecurity, and foreign liaison relationships. She departed DoD in 2019 to join the Majority Staff of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, where she oversaw the Intelligence Community’s science and technology portfolios, cybersecurity, and surveillance activities. She left HPSCI in May 2021 to join IQT.
Raffaela received her BS and MS in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2009 and her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 2015, where she was recognized for her commitment to public service with the Joyce Chiang Memorial Award. While at the Department of Defense, she was the inaugural recipient of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s General Counsel Award for exhibiting the highest standards of leadership, professional conduct, and integrity.
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