Privacy Advocates Push Dems To Do Something About Warrantless Surveillance

A growing coalition of political and civil society groups is pushing the new Democratic-majority Congress to curb the executive branch’s warrantless surveillance powers once they take over in January. Trump officials and even some Democrats, meanwhile, are encouraging Republicans to renew those powers during the lame duck session, making it more difficult for a bluer Congress to add guardrails to those powers next year.

As we reported earlier this week, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)—a provision used by US intelligence agencies to spy on the electronic communications of thousands of people outside the United States without a warrant—lapsed in June. The National Security Agency can continue operating under the law until March 2027, but a renewal would extend that timeline. Privacy advocates and civil libertarians have long decried Section 702, which was introduced in 2008 to retroactively legalize a post-9/11 wiretapping program, as unconstitutional. Earlier this year, seven Republicans defied Trump and voted against renewing it.

Incoming House Intelligence Committee head Rep. Jim Himes (D–Conn.), a surveillance hawk, told Republicans this week to “get this thing done” and renew Trump’s warrantless spy powers. Himes is joined by top national security officials in the administration—Attorney General Todd Blanche, Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe. In a joint letter, the three said President Trump has asked them to extend Section 702 now—as a renewal next year by the Democrat-controlled Congress would likely impose stronger warrant requirements on searching for information about Americans in the Section 702 database.

Many Americans are increasingly frustrated with being watched—from the 120,000 Flock cameras on our roads to the electronic monitoring of anti-ICE protesters—and last week’s elections reflected that. In a letter to Democratic leaders shared exclusively with Mother Jones, 80 civil rights groups outlined an anti-surveillance agenda they hope Democrats will pursue come January.

“We write to urge you to make protecting Americans’ privacy and reining in surveillance an urgent congressional priority. The unprecedented assault on privacy by the Trump administration underscores a fundamental reality: civil liberties cannot depend on who occupies the White House,” wrote the groups, which included American Federation of Teachers, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Demand Progress, the Project on Government Oversight, and Demand Progress.

“Federal surveillance capabilities now extend far beyond FISA,” they wrote. To match, that means that surveillance reform needs to extend beyond FISA too, they argued, toward federal rules that would govern access to location data—like the information gathered by Flock cameras—curb spying by agencies like ICE, and prohibit government data-broker use, which has expanded with little oversight.

That’s because it is entirely legal for the government to buy people’s personal data from third-party data broker sites, allowing them to access reams of personal information without a warrant by paying for it. “Basically, it’s like a police officer giving your landlord an envelope of cash to go into your apartment rather than getting a warrant,” Don Bell, senior policy counsel at the Project on Government Oversight, said.

This sort of broad, uncontrolled government surveillance is not popular: In last week’s elections, cities across the country voted to get rid of Flock cameras or to prevent their cities from installing them without public approval. So, as Democrats figure out how to keep voters’ goodwill, pushing against surveillance could be a good option, Bell said. “I think Americans have sent a resounding signal to Congress that they need to do something now to protect privacy and civil liberties.”