OK, there is plenty to talk about this afternoon, but the spin on everything these days makes me tired. The monthly Editorial Meeting on the First was unsettled and confused. No one knew quite what to make of the vehicle assault on the Senate entrance to the Capitol. Then the EPA notification came up that renewed regulations that would effectively ban motor sports in order to reduce use of fossil fuels. No one was certain how to craft a production strategy dealing with the end of Gasoline Alley before lunch. The concept of losing NASCAR seemed to merit day drinking, but after something decent. As an alternative to doing material on the prospective of wrenching adjustment to social order, decided to talk about something that will ensure somnolence and rest. We had one of the copy people go back through some notes about the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
Ouch. The people around the long green tablecloth, no ashtrays, blanched. There was general agreement that the topic is painfully dull at this distance, but was an interesting story at its founding. It had scandal and subterfuge throughout, and an immersion in the television media of the day. And crusading journalists! The aftermath of the Watergate Affair was spectacular theater.
Our pal Mac Showers was involved in all that, since he left the Navy during the tumult of the Zumwalt Era, and had been snapped up in the establishment of a reformed Central Intelligence Agency. The leadership was remarkable at the time- Stansfeld Turner and Bill Casey were just two, and Mac enjoyed talking about the major policy changes that went along with it. In addition to the usual government budget stuff, a new judicial system was mandated to keep things clean.
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court was a product of the amendment of Title 50, U.S. Code in 1978. That title includes governance of ‘the role of War and National Defense’ in the legal bailiwick. The Court was directed to sit in Washington and was composed of eleven federal district court judges designated by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. According to the FISA Act, each judge would serve for a maximum of seven years. Terms were staggered to ensure continuity on the FISA Bench. By statute, the judges must be drawn from at least seven of the United States judicial circuits. Three must reside within 20 miles of the District of Columbia. Judges typically sit for one week at a time, on a rotating basis.
Pursuant to FISA, the Court is supposed to entertain applications submitted by the DoJ for approval of electronic surveillance, physical search, and other investigative actions for foreign intelligence purposes. Adding to the complexity, most hearings are conducted ex parte as required by statute. That is the Latin legal phrase for decisions made by a judge without requiring all of the parties to the dispute to be present.
Asleep yet? That is where things were when it was new. Some things changed over time, and Mac’s recollections about how that worked is interesting. The degree that it changed appears to be demonstrated by what happened to Mr. Kevin Clinesmith, the only individual charged with anything in the whole Russian Collusion business. He altered documents submitted to the court to support the issuance of surveillance warrants on people who had done nothing. In so doing, he was assigned probation for a couple months.
The whole story is more fun, but we will get to that presently.
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