Lisa McCormick today called for bold reforms to safeguard Americans’ constitutional rights and reinstate the Fourth Amendment’s requirement for individualized, probable cause warrants in national security surveillance.
Decades of unchecked government surveillance have undermined the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a law designed to balance national security with Americans’ civil liberties.
“Following the 9/11 attacks, the federal government bypassed constitutional safeguards and weakened FISA to enable mass surveillance programs that defy the principles of the Fourth Amendment,” said McCormick. “President George W. Bush and Congress broke the law when they authorized warrantless wiretapping in 2001 and passed the PATRIOT Act to expand government spying powers. These actions shattered public trust in our intelligence agencies, and decades later, FISA remains in desperate need of reform.”
While the USA Freedom Act of 2015 offered modest reforms, whistleblowers and public disclosures have revealed that intelligence agencies continue to exploit FISA authorities for broad, warrantless surveillance that infringes on Americans’ rights.
Recent revelations demonstrate that these abuses persist, including the misuse of Section 702, which allows the government to surveil individuals without a judge’s approval.
“In 2023 alone, intelligence agencies conducted warrantless surveillance on over 250,000 targets under Section 702,” McCormick noted. “These programs permit backdoor searches of Americans’ private communications without judicial oversight, violating the Constitution and the public trust. We cannot allow these unconstitutional practices to continue.”
McCormick outlined several critical reforms to strengthen FISA, including:
- Enhancing Transparency: Congress must require the release of significant Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) rulings and strengthen the amicus provision to ensure adversarial perspectives are heard.
- Reforming Section 702: Congress should allow Section 702 to expire unless comprehensive reforms are enacted, including judicial review of surveillance targets and a ban on backdoor searches.
- Expanding Accountability: Criminal defendants must receive proper notice when evidence in their cases comes from FISA-authorized surveillance, enabling them to challenge the legality of such evidence.
- Empowering Oversight: Fully fund and staff the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) to provide robust oversight of intelligence-gathering programs.
McCormick also criticized the growing use of invasive surveillance technologies, such as facial recognition systems and border device searches, that disproportionately impact marginalized communities.
The anti-establishment Democrat urged Congress to pass legislation banning federal use of facial recognition technology, requiring warrants for electronic device searches at the border, and prohibiting law enforcement from purchasing location data from private companies.
“Surveillance technology, left unchecked, chills free speech, threatens civil liberties, and disproportionately harms communities of color,” McCormick said. “It is time for Congress to act and reaffirm that no government agency is above the law.”
Reproductive healthcare privacy is another critical area of concern in the post-Roe v. Wade era, as expansive surveillance poses risks to patients, providers, and support networks.
McCormick called for comprehensive privacy protections to restrict the collection and misuse of sensitive healthcare data, including banning geofence warrants and regulating electronic health record sharing.
“Mass data collection and surveillance should never become tools for criminalizing reproductive healthcare decisions,” McCormick declared. “We must protect the privacy and autonomy of all Americans.”
McCormick called on lawmakers to stand up for the Fourth Amendment and pass comprehensive reforms to restore public trust in the intelligence community and protect constitutional rights.
“National security cannot come at the expense of liberty,” McCormick said. “Congress must act now to ensure that FISA and surveillance practices respect the Constitution and protect the freedoms that define our democracy.”