United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court

Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court
Judgeships
Posts: 11
Judges: 11
Vacancies: 0
Judges
Chief: Anthony Trenga
Active judges: Timothy DeGiusti, Joan Ericksen, Louis Guirola, Kenneth Karas, Sara Lioi, Amit Priyavadan Mehta, Carl Nichols, George Singal, John Tharp Jr., Anthony Trenga

The United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) was established in 1978 by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The purpose of FISC is to oversee requests for surveillance warrants against suspected foreign intelligence agents inside the United States by federal police agencies (primarily the FBI). The FISA and FISC were a response to a report of the Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities (the “Church Committee”). This committee detailed allegations of executive branch abuses of its authority to conduct domestic electronic surveillance in the interest of national security.

Vacancies

See also: Current federal judicial vacancies

There is one current vacancies on the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, out of the court's 11 judicial positions.

Pending nominations

There are no pending nominees for this court.

Active judges

The 'Active' and 'Chief' columns for the judges below correspond to their terms as district court judges.

Sitting judges

Judge	Appointed By	Assumed Office	Bachelors	Law
John Tharp Jr.	John Roberts	May 19, 2018 -	Duke University, 1982	Northwestern University Law, 1990
George Singal	John Roberts	May 19, 2019 -	University of Maine, 1967	Harvard Law School, 1970
Louis Guirola	John Roberts	July 2, 2019 -	William Carey College, 1973	University of Mississippi Law Center, 1979
Anthony Trenga	John Roberts	May 28, 2020 -	Princeton University, 1971	University of Virginia School of Law, 1974
Amit Priyavadan Mehta	John Roberts	June 1, 2021 -	Georgetown University, 1993	University of Virginia School of Law, 1997
Kenneth Karas	John Roberts	May 23, 2022 -	Georgetown University, 1986	Columbia University Law, 1991
Joan Ericksen	John Roberts	April 3, 2023 -	St. Olaf College, 1977	University of Minnesota Law School, 1981
Sara Lioi	John Roberts	May 19, 2023 -	Bowling Green State University, 1983	The Ohio State University, Moritz School of Law, 1987
Timothy DeGiusti	John Roberts	May 19, 2023 -	University of Oklahoma, 1985	University of Oklahoma College of Law, 1988
Carl Nichols	John Roberts	March 11, 2024 -	Dartmouth College, 1992	University of Chicago Law School, 1996

Jurisdiction

The court possesses limited subject matter jurisdiction across the United States.

Cases heard

Warrant applications
Warrant applications under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act are drafted by attorneys in the General Counsel’s Office at the National Security Agency at the request of an officer of one of the federal intelligence agencies. Each application must contain the Attorney General’s certification that the target of the proposed surveillance is either a "foreign power" or "the agent of a foreign power" and, in the case of a U.S. citizen or resident alien, that the target may be involved in the commission of a crime.

The judges of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court travel to Washington, D.C., to hear these warrant applications on a rotating basis. At least one of the judges is required to be a member of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

The act of 1978 also established a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, presided over by three district or appeals court judges designated by the Chief Justice, to review, at the government’s request, the decisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The review court had no occasion to meet until 2002.

History

Judicial posts

FISA originally authorized the Chief Justice of the United States to designate seven federal district court judges to review applications for warrants related to national security investigations. However, the Patriot Act of 2001 (115 Stat. 272) expanded the time period for which the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court can authorize surveillance and increased the number of judges serving the court from seven to eleven. The Patriot Act also requires that at least three of the judges of the court reside within twenty miles of the District of Columbia.

Judges serve for staggered, non-renewable terms of no more than seven years, and must be from different judicial circuits.

Former judges

For more information about the judges of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, see former federal judges of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

See also

• News: Obama announces changes for FISA court, January 20, 2014
• Subject-matter jurisdiction

External links

• Search Google News for this topic
• Federal Judicial History of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court
• ACLU.org, Rules of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court
• The Electronic Privacy Information Center, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Orders 1979-2007
• National Journal, "Chief Justice John Roberts Appointed Every Judge on the FISA Court," August 12, 2013
• Reuters, "The judges who preside over America's secret court," June 21, 2013
• NPR, "Why the FISA court is not what it used to be," June 18, 2013
• Washington Post, "Google challenges U.S. gag order, citing First Amendment," June 18, 2013
• The Guardian, "US senators bid to force government to reveal secret surveillance rulings," June 11, 2013
• The Washington Post, "The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court: An Infographic," June 7, 2013
• The Guardian, "NSA collecting phone records of millions of Verizon customers daily," June 5, 2013
•  The Blog of Legal Times, "Civil liberties group asks secret court to release opinion," May 22, 2013

Footnotes

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