House readies for a vote on warrantless spy powers. Last night, GOP leaders in the House cleared the way for a floor vote on an 18-month clean extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) without additional privacy protections some Republicans had wanted.
Section 702 of FISA allows the government to obtain the communications of foreign surveillance targets without needing to go to a judge to get a traditional warrant. This section of the law has long been controversial, as the government has wide discretion to decide which foreigners it wants to put under surveillance, and Americans' communications are collected as part of this surveillance.
