2010 FISA Orders Up 19%, No Surveillance Request Turned Down
The Department of Justice has released the 2010 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) report. In 2010, the Justice Department submitted 1,579 FISA search applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, a 19% increase over 2009. The court did not deny or modify any applications. Also in 2010 the FBI made 24,287 National Security Letter requests for information pertaining to 14,212 different U.S. persons. This is a substantial increase from the 14,788 national security letter requests concerning 6,114 U.S. persons in 2009. EPIC has recommended greater accountability for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. For more information, see: EPIC: Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court Orders 1979-2010 and EPIC: Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.