Case: In re Application of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for an Order Requiring the Production of Tangible Things from [Redacted], FISC BR 14-67

14-00067 | Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court

Filed Date: 2014

Closed Date: 2014

Clearinghouse coding complete

Case Summary

For the Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse collection of FISA matters, see our special collection. On January 17, 2014, the Director of National Intelligence authorized the declassification and public release of numerous orders approving the National Security Agency's ("NSA") so-called "Bulk Telephony Metadata Program" under Section 501 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 ("FISA"), commonly referred to as Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act. Under the program, the NSA has col…

For the Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse collection of FISA matters, see our special collection.

On January 17, 2014, the Director of National Intelligence authorized the declassification and public release of numerous orders approving the National Security Agency's ("NSA") so-called "Bulk Telephony Metadata Program" under Section 501 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 ("FISA"), commonly referred to as Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act.

Under the program, the NSA has collected records from large telecommunication companies about, apparently, virtually all domestic telephone calls. These records, termed "telephony metadata," include the phone numbers placed and received; the date, time and duration of calls; some location identifiers; and calling card numbers. The records, however, apparently do not include the parties' names, addresses or financial information or the call's content. Once collected, the records are stored for several years and may be queried, used, and disseminated only in accordance with "minimization rules" proposed by the government and approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ("FISC"). The most basic aspect of the minimization rules has been that the metadata records can be queried when there is a reasonable suspicion, based on specific and articulated facts, that the identifier that will be used as the basis for the query is associated with specified foreign terrorist organizations.

The program began under executive authority alone, following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Subsequently, in 2006, the federal government first sought approval of the program from the FISC under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act. This Section 215 order must be reviewed and reapproved by the FISC essentially every 90 days. It has been approved dozens of times by many different federal judges, on the FISC, since its initial approval on May 24, 2006 by the FISC. (See BR 06-05).

This matter is a continuation of the Section 215 program from March 28, 2014, to June 20, 2014. On March 28, 2014, FISC Judge Rosemary M. Collyer issued the primary order authorizing the collection under specified procedures. The previous order was BR 14-01. As usual, this order includes "minimization" procedures that impose a variety of limits on the NSA's use of the telephony metadata. The minimization procedures enumerated in this order are the same as those in the previous order, with two exceptions.

First, queries of the BR metadata using RAS-approved selection terms for purposes of obtaining foreign intelligence information may occur only by manual analyst query since the NSA was unable to meet the Court's requirements due to technical issues. It appears that the government gave up in its efforts to introduce an automated query. The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board provided the only unclassified description of what the government had been trying to do with such a query: "In 2012, the FISA court approved a new and automated method of performing queries, one that is associated with a new infrastructure implemented by the NSA to process its calling records. The essence of this new process is that, instead of waiting for individual analysts to perform manual queries of particular selection terms that have been RAS approved, the NSA's database periodically performs queries on all RAS-approved seed terms, up to three hops away from the approved seeds." PCLOB, Report on the Telephone Records Program Conducted under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act and on the Operations of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (Jan. 23, 2014).

Second, Judge Collyer changed the standard dragnet language to include chaining on "connections" in addition to actual calls. The first "hop" from a seed returns results including all identifiers (and their associated metadata) with a contact and/or connection with the seed. The second "hop" returns results that include all identifiers (and their associated metadata) with a contact and/or connection with an identifier revealed by the first "hop."

On June 26, 2014, FISC Judge Thomas F. Hogan ordered the publication of the March 28 Memorandum Opinion and Primary Order after the government reviewed and redacted the document.

The order in this matter was succeeded by BR 14-96.

Summary Authors

Jessica Kincaid (7/21/2014)

Brian Tengel (2/23/2015)

Related Cases

In re Application of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for an Order Requiring the Production of Tangible Things from [Redacted], FISA BR 14-96, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (2014)

People


Judge(s)

Collyer, Rosemary M. (District of Columbia)

Judge(s)

Collyer, Rosemary M. (District of Columbia)

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Documents in the Clearinghouse

Document

14-00067

Primary Order

In re Application of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for an Order Requiring the Production of Tangible Things from [Redacted]

March 1, 2014

March 1, 2014

Order/Opinion

Docket

Last updated March 14, 2024, 3:09 a.m.

Docket sheet not available via the Clearinghouse.

Case Details

State / Territory: District of Columbia

Case Type(s):

National Security

Special Collection(s):

Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act -- All Matters

Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act -- Telephony Metadata

Key Dates

Filing Date: 2014

Closing Date: 2014

Case Ongoing: No

Plaintiffs

Plaintiff Description:

U.S. Government (FBI) seeking a FISA order relating to bulk telephony metadata.

Plaintiff Type(s):

U.S. Dept of Justice plaintiff

Public Interest Lawyer: Yes

Filed Pro Se: No

Class Action Sought: No

Class Action Outcome: Not sought

Case Details

Causes of Action:

FISA Title V order (PATRIOT Act § 215, business records or other tangible things), 50 U.S.C. §§ 1861-1862

Constitutional Clause(s):

Unreasonable search and seizure

Available Documents:

Injunctive (or Injunctive-like) Relief

Any published opinion

Outcome

Prevailing Party: Plaintiff

Nature of Relief:

Injunction / Injunctive-like Settlement

Source of Relief:

Litigation

Order Duration: 2014 - 2014

Content of Injunction:

Recordkeeping

Warrant/order for search or seizure

Required disclosure

Issues

General:

Record-keeping

Records Disclosure

Terrorism/Post 9-11 issues