On Sunday, the Trump administration missed a statutory deadline to declassify a FISA Court opinion from March that reportedly finds more Section 702 compliance issues affecting Americans’ rights. The administration is now in violation of the law. 1/18

Last Friday, the nation solemnly observed the 25th anniversary of the heinous attacks of 9-11. Today marks a related anniversary that has gone largely unnoticed, as we begin the 26th year under the state of emergency declared on Sept. 14, 2001. 1/14

Thread.

Hannah James@hannahajames.bsky.social · 4w ago

New reporting from @theguardian.com highlights DHS’s continued misuse of administrative subpoenas. As @emileayoub.bsky.social and I explain in a recent piece, this sweeping authority is long overdue for reforms. www.justsecurity.org/153773/admin...

Jay Clayton has been sworn in as Director of National Intelligence (DNI). What’s next for Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act? 1/17

Today, two dozen national and local organizations wrote to Governor Green and asked him to recall the Hawai’i National Guard forces that he sent to Washington, DC, at President Trump’s request. 1/10 www.brennancenter.org/our-work/res...

Coalition Letter to Governor Green

The Brennan Center and more than twenty other organizations have sent a letter to Governor Green urging him to recall the Hawai’i National Guard members he sent to Washington, DC, at President Trump’s...

brennancenter.org

Today, more than two dozen national and local organizations wrote to Governor Whitmer and asked her to recall the Michigan National Guard forces that she sent to Washington, DC, at President Trump’s request. 1/11 www.brennancenter.org/our-work/res...

Coalition Letter to Governor Whitmer

The Brennan Center and more than two dozen other organizations have sent a letter to Governor Whitmer urging her to recall the Michigan National Guard members she sent to Washington, DC, at President ...

brennancenter.org

Nineteen retired senior defense and military leaders who served under presidents of both parties have sent an extraordinary letter to 18 governors expressing concern over other governors’ recent deployments of National Guard forces to DC at Trump’s request. 1/8

NatSec-Letter-to-Gov-Spanberger-VA-re-DC-Deployments-2026-07-01

NatSec-Letter-to-Gov-Spanberger-VA-re-DC-Deployments-2026-07-01

natsec-letter-to-gov-spanberger-va-re-dc-deployments-2026-07-01.tiiny.site

Over the past two weeks, five governors who previously condemned other states’ deployment of National Guard forces into Washington, DC have sent some of their own Guard forces into the city. Fortunately, at least two appear to be recognizing their mistake. 1/15

An important new @brennancenter.org resource from my colleague @josephanunn.bsky.social.

Joseph Nunn@josephanunn.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Governors of many U.S. states and territories have sweeping power to use National Guard troops with relatively few legal constraints, new Brennan Center research shows. This is a dangerous state of affairs that’s ripe for abuse. Legislatures must act. 1/21

Section 702 sunsets today. What’s next? Surveillance can continue until March 2027 under a grandfather clause. In the meantime, Congress must take this opportunity to build real protections for Americans’ privacy into any Section 702 2.0. 1/17

Senator Cornyn just blocked a 9-month extension of Section 702 with a warrant requirement for backdoor searches. He then blocked a 5-week extension with no warrant requirement, just basic transparency measures. 1/2

Sharing two new resources on FISA Section 702. First, my op-ed in @thehill.com today on why Pulte isn’t the only reason Section 702 renewal is stuck (spoiler alert: Republican leadership is refusing to allow votes on reforms that have broad bipartisan support): 1/2 thehill.com/opinion/cong...

Beyond Pulte, Congress cannot renew spy law without reforms

Pulte or no Pulte, renewal of Section 702 will be an uphill battle unless Republican leaders allow votes on genuine reform.

thehill.com

At dawn this morning, the Senate voted 47-52 not to advance a Section 702 reauthorization that would have given the Trump administration warrantless access to Americans’ communications. It’s an interim victory… but it’s crucial to take the right lessons from it. 1/11

Members of Congress who will not vote to reauthorize Section 702 as long as Bill Pulte is slated to become acting Director of National Intelligence aren’t jeopardizing national security—they’re protecting it. 1/15

The Senate will take up Section 702 reauthorization again as early as tomorrow. The bill from reform opponents (Trump allies in Congress + Sen. Warner) doesn’t just fail to curb warrantless domestic spying. It actually expands the govt’s ability to use 702 against Americans. 1/18

On Friday, the Trump administration, which is demanding that Congress pass a straight reauthorization of FISA Section 702, missed a deadline to declassify a FISA Court opinion that reportedly reveals yet more major Section 702 compliance problems. 1/14

In today's @justsecurity.org, my colleague @hannahajames.bsky.social & I analyze Speaker Johnson's "new" proposal to reauthorize Section 702. It's the same as the one the House just rejected, and it places no new restrictions on backdoor searches. www.justsecurity.org/137206/johns...

Fool’s Gold: Speaker Johnson’s Section 702 proposal would place no limits on backdoor searches

A critique of the Speaker's most recent legislative proposal to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

justsecurity.org

After his spectacular failure to push through a reauthorization of Section 702 in the dead of night last Thursday, Speaker Johnson is trying again—with a new proposal that’s almost identical to the one that failed last week. 1/18

Speaker Johnson has dropped a new proposal to reauthorize Section 702. Not only does it fail to include a warrant requirement for backdoor searches, it makes no changes AT ALL to the standard or the procedures currently in place for conducting these searches. I'll have a thread coming soon.

Two senators you don’t often see together on a byline. As this important op-ed demonstrates, there’s broad bipartisan support for reforming Section 702 to protect Americans’ rights. Thank you @durbin.senate.gov & Senator Mike Lee for your leadership on this issue. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/17/o...

Opinion | We Disagree on a Lot. But We Know This Law Must Change.

nytimes.com

In a dramatic scene that unfolded in the wee hours this morning, members of the House defeated a ploy by the administration and Speaker Johnson to ram through a 5-year reauthorization of FISA Section 702. Here’s what happened, and what will/should happen next. 1/20

The @nytimes.com has a story tonight that should put a nail in the coffin of the administration’s plans to push a straight reauthorization of FISA Section 702. Bottom line: the FBI is seemingly *still* engaged in systemic violations of the law. 1/20 www.nytimes.com/2026/04/09/u...

Helpful thread pointing out errors in Glenn Gerstell's Lawfare piece about Section 702. I'll add another one... 1/3 bsky.app/profile/jake...

A new “staff report” on Section 702 came out of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) today. It’s a puff piece that suggests the FBI isn’t conducting *enough* warrantless searches for Americans’ communications. Here’s why the report can’t be taken seriously. 1/7

Opponents of reforming FISA Section 702 cite a government statistic showing “only” a few thousand warrantless searches of Americans’ communications in 2024-25. In @justsecurity.org, @hannahajames.bsky.social & I discuss the truth behind that misleading statistic. www.justsecurity.org/135283/truth...

The Truth Behind Section 702 Query Statistics

Authors write that Congress must now impose a warrant requirement for Section 702 access to Americans' communications.

justsecurity.org

Take a look at this important -- and timely! -- report from my @brennancenter.org colleagues @amostoh.bsky.social and @emileayoub.bsky.social on the Defense Department's race to adopt AI and the resulting risks to civil liberties and even human life.

Brennan Center@brennancenter.org · 7mo ago

Anthropic’s recent clash with the Defense Department over mass surveillance and autonomous weapons shows why the Pentagon’s use of AI must be reined in. Our latest report documents the Pentagon’s rapid adoption of AI and outlines safeguards to ensure the technology is deployed responsibly.

By a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court has held that Trump’s worldwide tariffs exceeded his authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The decision is a victory for the rule of law and the separation of powers. 1/18 www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

Yesterday we learned that the Department of Justice is monitoring and tracking members of Congress’s searches of the Epstein files. There’s no sugar coating it: the administration is spying on lawmakers as they exercise their constitutional oversight responsibilities. 1/10

My colleague @hannahajames.bsky.social has an important post in today's @justsecurity.org debunking DHS's claim that it has legal authority to enter homes without warrants.

Just Security@justsecurity.org · 8mo ago

DHS has a Fourth Amendment problem. @hannahajames.bsky.social of the @brennancenter.org explains why the agency’s new policy allowing ICE to enter homes to conduct arrests is not only a break from past practice, it violates the Constitution. www.justsecurity.org/130497/dhs-w...

After ICE agents wrestled Alex Pretti to the ground, beat him, and shot him to death, Governor Walz activated state National Guard forces at the Hennepin County Sheriff’s request. The sheriff cited “the potential for continuing and growing conflict” due to the killing. 1/20