The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) approved the federal government’s application to renew the Section 215 telephone metadata program for a six-month transition program, the Justice Department and Director of National Intelligence said in a joint press statement.
The USA Freedom Act of 2015 banned bulk metadata collection under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act while providing for a new mechanism to obtain such data from telephone providers (Defense Daily, May 15). The law also provides for a 180-day transition period when the existing National Security Agency (NSA) metadata program may continue until the new procedures are completed.
The FISC held that the continuation of the program for the transition period is consistent with the statute and the Fourth Amendment, the statement said.
Earlier in June, the court determined the 180-day transition period was valid even though the PATRIOT Act powers expired 24 hours before the FREEDOM Act became law.
The court’s new order requires that during the transition, excepting an emergency, telephone metadata can only be queried “after a judicial finding that there is a reasonable, articulable suspicion that the selection term is associated with an approved international terrorist organization.” The query must also be limited to metadata within “two hops” of the selection term, rather than three.
The administration is undertaking a declassification review of the recent order. When complete, the office of the Director of National Intelligence will post the document to its website, the release said.