by Charles Levendosky

About the author: Charles Levendosky writes on constitutional issues and is the creator and editor of the Casper [Wyoming] Star-Tribune’s First Amendment website (FACT).

On November 18, [2002], the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review ruled the USA PATRIOT Act1 grants the U.S. Department of Justice broader authority to subject American citizens to secret surveillance and searches. The secret court had to resort to word games in order to reach its conclusion.

The Purpose of the Secret Court

In 1978, Congress passed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which created a secret federal court to hear DOJ [Department of Justice] applications and to grant orders approving electronic surveillance “for the purpose of obtaining foreign intelligence information.” That was to have been its sole purpose. Through an...