FISA

Congress Still Has a Chance To Curb Section 702 Surveillance Abuses

Sen. Ron Wyden warns that Americans would be “stunned” at how officials have used the law.

J.D. Tuccille | 4.24.2026 7:00 AM

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(Illustration: Igorusha/Dreamstime/Midjourney)

With Republicans controlling both houses of Congress, President Donald Trump's reversal from opponent to supporter of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) seemed certain to guarantee renewal of the law. That's not what happened. Instead, Section 702 of the controversial spying legislation won only a temporary extension, to April 30, as civil libertarians and surveillance-state supporters from both major parties continue to battle. Hopefully, the outcome is the long-deserved demise of surveillance practices that threaten the privacy of Americans.

You are reading The Rattler from J.D. Tuccille and Reason. Get more of J.D.'s commentary on government overreach and threats to everyday liberty.

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Foreign Intelligence Gathering Crosses Into Domestic Surveillance

Enacted in 2008, Section 702 of FISA authorized the ongoing interception (originally under executive authority) of online communications involving alleged national security threats through "the targeting of non-United States persons," as the Office of the Director of National Intelligence puts it.

But intercepting communications inevitably scoops up messages and data involving Americans. As the U.S. government's own Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board put it in a 2023 report, "Section 702 poses significant privacy and civil liberties risks, most notably from U.S. person queries and batch queries" in which multiple searches on........

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