The next key date in the metadata saga was February 26, 2009---that is, about a month after the government initially had apprised the court of a violation of the its procedures for querying collected met...

On February 12, 2009, the government submitted a 28-page brief and 93 pages of supporting documentation to the FISC in response to the court’s January 28, 2009 order. The brief opens with two clear conce...

The story starts in May 2006, when the FISA Court granted the FBI’s application for telecommunications companies to turn over certain “tangible things” to the NSA under Section 215. The “tangible things,...

The latest cache of NSA documents---a group released yesterday related to errors in collection under Section 215---follows the same basic narrative pattern as the agency’s earlier release concerning impl...

[Updated (11:34 a.m.): Ben rightly points out to me that his reply does not use the phrases "clearly legal" or "settled," and so my use of quotation marks around those terms may convey the wrong impressi...

In his response to my post in defense of the NSA, Steve raises a few issues about my claim that the "NSA's activities are legal." I would like to address them each very briefly. First, he asks, "does Be...

I have no doubt that Ben meant to provoke--and, at least in my case, he did (enough, at least, to make a Coming to America reference in the title of this post).

The NSA has been somewhat less in the news the past few weeks, thanks largely to Syria. That's going to change in the coming days, when the latest tranche of declassified materials becomes public.

Among the documents that Edward Snowden released are reports showing that the NSA had been picking up email and phone conversations by and among foreign leaders.  Among the alleged targets were officials...

I'm pleased to announce that the third installment of the Lawfare Research Paper Series is now available. By Steven. G.

The world now has extraordinary access to the details of how the United States operates and funds its intelligence agencies, courtesy of Edward Showden and the Washington Post.  This will lead to no good...