It was unclear today whether any other member of the FISA Court is contemplating resigning.
The central mandate of FISA, and of the NSA, had not changed in theory: foreign intelligence gathering.
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) sets forth procedures for the surveillance and collection of foreign intelligence information.
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The controversy over President Bush's warrantless domestic eavesdropping program also prompted calls for change in the FISA law.
The core piece of controversial legislation is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which became law in 1978.
Lamberth said he has not seen a proposal for a better way of doing things than the FISA court.
Getting a FISA warrant requires a multistep review involving several lawyers at different offices within the Department of Justice.
Two amendments complicate FISA's story and potentially bring its actions to American shores.
He said even though the two were very different politically, both took their relationship with the FISA court very seriously.
And he's even hinted that he might do that if the House doesn't pass the FISA bill that he wants.
Several FISA court judges are raising concerns about the program, according to The Washington Post, which first reported the briefing.
Judge Lamberth left the FISA court before Alberto Gonzales became attorney general so he said he can't comment on his effectiveness.
Philip Heymann served in high-ranking Justice Department jobs in the Carter administration, when FISA was passed, and in the Clinton administration.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has said the NSA program was not meant to circumvent the FISA process but to augment it.
The surveillance court, made up of 11 judges from across the nation, was created in 1978 by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
"At its core, this historic, bipartisan agreement to modernize FISA is about providing an essential tool in the fight against terrorism, " Rockefeller said his statement.
While many Americans might object in principle to FISA and the NSA's alleged implementation of the law, not many individuals are likely to be affected.
"FISA says it's the exclusive law to authorize wiretaps, " Democratic Sen.
When does the public -- I mean at some point do you allow sort of -- some sort of scrutiny on this outside of the FISA court?
In other words, those lawyers and judges who created, implemented and so assiduously enforced the FISA guidelines were wrong and the American people paid dearly for it.
Because apparently President Bush authorized the NSA to monitor the numbers of international telephone calls and emails of U.S. citizens, without the FISA warrant that's normally been required.
One question is whether anyone in government requested that the federal FISA court issue a warrant so Tamerlan could have his Web postings or phone calls surveilled electronically.
In a press briefing, Assistant Attorney General Steven Bradbury said the Justice Department believes the monitoring can be done legally outside the normal scope of the FISA law.
Judge James Robertson is one of 11 judges appointed by the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist to serve on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, known as the FISA Court.
Under the old rules, for example, FBI agents asking the FISA court for permission to use surveillance were required to identify suspected terrorists as agents of a specific nation.
This came to a head last week because the 2008 version of FISA is set to expire at year's end, and the US House passed a five-year extension with strong bipartisan support.
The program was launched by President George W. Bush, but The New York Times reports that the extension of the program under FISA received favorable votes from then Senator Obama and other leading Democrats.
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It's called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. It established a special secret court to approve national security warrants, and in the years since that court has approved 19, 000 of them and rejected just five.
Justice Department lawyers argued this program was part of the government's need to gather foreign intelligence, which does not explicitly require agents to go through the process of getting a warrant, as is required under the FISA law.
Preventing roving wiretaps: The Patriot Act allows federal officials, pursuant to Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court authority, to track the telecommunications of suspected terrorists, despite their efforts to defeat such monitoring by changing phones or service providers.
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