Federal Court Refuses to Widen Justice Dept. Surveillance Powers

The May ruling by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court was made public Thursday after the Justice Department appealed the court’s opinion saying it “unnecessarily narrowed” the anti-terror USA Patriot Act.

The ruling found fault with the government on several counts, including the improper sharing of intelligence with prosecutors and supplying “misstatements and omissions” to the court in some 75 applications for surveillance. The court defines potential FBI surveillance techniques as including, “telephone, microphone, cell phone, e-mail and computer surveillance of the U.S. person targets’ home, workplace and vehicles.”

The ruling also contradicts a March memo by Attorney General John Ashcroft that endorsed the sharing of intelligence information with prosecutors and the exchanging of advice on how to carry out surveillance and searches.

The court felt that giving prosecutors too much input into counterintelligence operations could open the door for the misuse of such intelligence in criminal cases.

The Justice Department said Thursday that the court’s ruling limits the ability of investigators to coordinate surveillance efforts in the war against terrorism.

“Their opinion limits our ability to engage in the kind of coordination which we believe is both helpful and necessary to our ability to protect national security,” a senior Justice Department official told Reuters.

The 23-year-old secret court is composed of a rotating panel of federal judges and is part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). It is responsible for approving Justice Department requests for surveillance and physical searches on those believed to be acting against U.S. interests.

Senior members of the Senate Judiciary Committee released the ruling late Thursday as well as a letter from the chief judge of the FISA court who agreed to make the opinion public. The release provides an unusual glimpse into what presumably has been an ongoing dispute between the government and the court.