Rokita Praises "Small Step' DNI-FISC Release -- Asks for More

Press Release

Rep Todd Rokita, original coauthor of the Ending Secret Law Act to declassify Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) decisions that authorized surveillance on American citizens, released the following statement after the Director of National Intelligence declassified documents related to a single FISC court order that authorized the collection of telephone metadata under the PATRIOT Act.

"I believe this is an important, albeit small, first step in restoring some degree of faith in our intelligence community to restrict its surveillance of its own citizens, but there is still a long way to go. Americans have a right to know if, why, and how intelligence communities may have infringed upon their 4th Amendment protections from unlawful search or seizure without probable cause. I urge my colleagues and their constituents to support the Ending Secret Law Act to declassify all of decisions made by the court to conduct surveillance against Americans. We simply cannot trust federal government bureaucrats on what they do and do not release or rely on the efforts of diligent news reporters to notify us when our rights may have been violated," said Rokita.

Today's release of documents pertained to one single order for a specific time period by a FISC judge. The released documents failed to offer reasoning for the order.

Rokita's Ending Secret Law Act would require a full accounting of all orders to conduct surveillance on law-abiding Americans. It would force the Attorney General to declassify FISC opinions, informing Americans on how the court justified the search and seizure of electronic data of Americans under Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act and Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) amendments. It was introduced on June 20, 2013 and already has 25 cosigners from both parties.

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