FISA Reform Failed Because The Whole Point Of Section 702 Is To Spy On Americans, by John Daniel Davidson

A group of 19 Republican lawmakers on Wednesday joined with Democrats to block a bill that would have reauthorized the federal government’s spying authority with a few minor tweaks. At issue is Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows warrantless surveillance of foreigners but is also routinely used to spy on American citizens.

As it stands now, the law, which is set to expire April 19, allows U.S. intelligence agencies to spy on foreign nationals based overseas, but it also lets the FBI comb through the massive amounts of data the intelligence community collects and gather information about American citizens. These are known as “backdoor searches,” and an unlikely coalition of conservative Republicans and left-wing Democrats want to change how these searches are conducted. …

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