In re Sealed Case, 310 F.3d 717 (2002), is decision by the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review reviewing a "denial" of a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) application handed down on May 17, 2002. The Court of Review reversed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) rejection of the FISA application. This opinion represents the first meeting of and first opinion by the Court of Review. For the purposes of review, the FISC's modification of the requested application worked as a denial, giving the Court of Review jurisdiction to take the case.
Among other things, the Court of Review found that FISA is constitutional, that the minimization requirements of FISA are not grounds to limit the purpose of the FISA application, and that FISA may be used to collect evidence for criminal prosecution. The Court also noted (but made no judgment regarding) "the President’s inherent constitutional authority to conduct warrantless foreign intelligence surveillance" which relates to part of the government justification in the NSA warrantless surveillance controversy.
Famous quotes containing the words sealed and/or case:
““Our snowstorms as a rule
Aren’t looked on as man-killers, and although
I’d rather be the beast that sleeps the sleep
Under it all, his door sealed up and lost,
Than the man fighting it to keep above it,
Yet think of the small birds at roost and not
In nests....””
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“It was a maxim with Mr. Brass that the habit of paying compliments kept a man’s tongue oiled without any expense; and that, as that useful member ought never to grow rusty or creak in turning on its hinges in the case of a practitioner of the law, in whom it should be always glib and easy, he lost few opportunities of improving himself by the utterance of handsome speeches and eulogistic expressions”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)