FISA Court: Privacy and the Star Chamber

The Fourth of July is about the celebration of liberty and individual freedom. The birth of the Republic However, this Fourth, I was thinking something else over the holiday, about the erosion of freedom, the threat to individual liberty and the lurking, faceless, all-knowing hand of government.

I am a huge believer of privacy. Government does not need to know everything about everyone. It is dangerous, a breach of faith of the contract between the governed and its government and just plain wrong.

We now know the government is collecting massive amounts of data-all under the guise of protecting us from terrorism. It is our phone calls, Internet searches, e-mails. The mail we receive is being noted and recorded. People are being tracked on their cell phones; Cameras are recording our movements through tollbooths, walking down the streets and entering buildings. It is akin to Winston Smith passing by a view screen.

The government says it is only using all of this as mega-data collection, whatever that is. I am not convinced and it is only a small step to create a profile on each and every one of us. Checking my mail will tell authorities where I bank, what magazines I read, what political party sends me information, what church I attend, where my family lives, what charities I support. Believe me it is not that interesting but that is not the point. It is I Staziesque. Are they making a list of who gets to board the train first?

How much are we willing to give up to save what we have? 

A great deal of these activities is sanctioned by the 11-member Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, known as the FISA court. Congress created the court in the late 1970’s as a check against prior wiretapping abuses by the government to focus on approving case-by-case wiretapping orders. It has moved way beyond the pale.

The jurisdiction and breath of its rulings over the past few years have made it into a non-accountable Supreme Court on surveillance issues. However, unlike the Supreme Court, the FISA court hears from only one side in the case — the government — and it keeps its rulings from the public. I do not recall any public confirmation of the judges.  I do not know if they ever buck a government request. In some respects, the process has become a kind of “ Star Chamber”

The English court of the Star Chamber (so named because of stars painted on the ceiling) developed from the judicial proceedings traditionally carried out by the king and his council into an entirely separate system from the common-law courts of the day. Court sessions were held in secret, with no indictments and no witnesses. Over time it evolved into a political weapon, a symbol of the misuse and abuse of power by the Crown. It was abolished in 1641 as a result of the sour relationship between the Parliament and the King leading to the English Civil War. 

The term has come to apply to legal or administrative bodies with strict, arbitrary rulings and secretive proceedings.

According to an article in The New York Times on FISA court yesterday:

----the court has taken on a much more expansive role by regularly assessing broad constitutional questions and establishing important judicial precedents, with almost no public scrutiny---,

Oh, by the way, court meets in a secure, nondescript room in the federal courthouse in Washington. Not sure if there are any stars on the ceiling. .

I understand the need and role of the government to protect us from foreign and domestic threats. I am concerned the threat to all of us may eventually be the government itself. This is an issue that needs to be fully revealed and discussed.  Liberty is at stake for us all.