Part Iii -surveillance, Oversight, Skepticism, and Race Lessons For the Next Twenty Years: What the Two Decades Since 9/11 Have Taught Us About the Future of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Law

PART III - SURVEILLANCE, OVERSIGHT,

SKEPTICISM, AND RACE

Lessons for the Next Twenty Years: What the Two

Decades Since 9/11 Have Taught Us About the

Future of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Law

David S. Kris*

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

I. DEVELOPMENTS IN FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE SURVEILLANCE LAW . . . . . . 110

A. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (1978) . . . . . . . . . . 110

B. The FISA Wall (2002). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

C. FISA Modernization (2008) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

D. Bulk Metadata Collection (2013) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

E. FISA Accuracy (2020) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

II. LESSONS LEARNED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

This document was reviewed for classif‌ied information by the U.S. government.

INTRODUCTION

I am tempted to begin this essay with well-known quotations from Edmund

Burke

1

and Yogi Berra.

2

Their advice, which I will follow, is to study the past

seriously but predict the future with humility and a sense of humor. I have written

elsewhere about forthcoming technical issues in the f‌ield of foreign intelligence

surveillance law, but this essay considers more generally how surveillance law

evolves.

3

It examines f‌ive major developments and identif‌ies f‌ive major lessons.

* David S. Kris is a founder of Culper Partners, LLC. © 2021, David S. Kris.

1. “Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it,” Quotation by Edmund Burke,

KNOWYOURQUOTES, https://perma.cc/4A28-QUA9.

2. “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future,” Quotation by Yogi Berra,

GOODREADS, https://perma.cc/36KM-FHD7.

3. David S. Kris, Trends and Predictions in Foreign Intelligence Surveillance, HOOVER INST. (2016),

https://perma.cc/3FPL-PPVN; David S. Kris, Digital Divergence, NAT’L CONST. CTR., https://perma.cc/

VFA8-Z4MF; David S. Kris, FISA Reform Opinion by David Kris (August 2020), https://perma.cc/

SW58-NG7F.

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