> Secret warrants only in the context of counterintelligence and counterespionage investigations that target foreigners
That sounds like a limited context - but the courts were happy to give spy agencies a warrant covering records of every phone call made in America [1]
So it turns out the warrants don't have to describe the place or person to be searched, and don't have to be limited to foreigners. And that wasn't a one-off error or individual mistaken judge - it was reauthorized 34 times under 14 different judges.
Granted some of the rules were changed after that specific surveillance was revealed - but the "fixes" ignored the fundamental problem that secret courts aren't effective at preventing spy agency overreach.
That sounds like a limited context - but the courts were happy to give spy agencies a warrant covering records of every phone call made in America [1]
So it turns out the warrants don't have to describe the place or person to be searched, and don't have to be limited to foreigners. And that wasn't a one-off error or individual mistaken judge - it was reauthorized 34 times under 14 different judges.
Granted some of the rules were changed after that specific surveillance was revealed - but the "fixes" ignored the fundamental problem that secret courts aren't effective at preventing spy agency overreach.
[1] https://www.csis.org/analysis/fact-sheet-section-215-usa-pat...