Lawfare Archive: The Case For and Against a FISA Advocate
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 6 November 2021
⏱️ 62 minutes
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Summary
From June 14, 2014: At the 2014 Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference, a panel of experts debated the pros and cons of adding outside lawyers to litigation before two tribunals at the heart of the NSA surveillance controversy: the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ("FISC") and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review ("FISCR"). As is well known, proceedings at those courts generally are held in secret and ex parte, with only the government arguing its position. But, in the wake of the Snowden revelations, many have called for reform, and for greater participation by non-government attorneys.
The group was comprised of panelists Marc Zwillinger, an attorney with experience in surveillance matters; Alex Abdo of the American Civil Liberties Union; and Amie Stepanovich, of Access. Lawfare's Steve Vladeck moderated the discussion, which closely examined the question of whether, and how, to add more adversarial process to FISC and FISCR proceedings.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising to access an ad-free version of the LawFair |
| 0:07.2 | podcast become a material supporter of LawFair at patreon.com slash LawFair. |
| 0:14.7 | That's patreon.com slash LawFair. |
| 0:18.2 | Also, check out LawFair's other podcast offerings, rational security, chatter, LawFair |
| 0:25.6 | no bull and the aftermath. |
| 0:39.8 | I'm Emily Day and this is an episode from the LawFair Archives for November 6, 2021. |
| 0:45.9 | This week, the Supreme Court denied a petition for review in American Civil Liberties Union |
| 0:50.1 | versus United States. |
| 0:52.0 | The petition asked the Supreme Court to review the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court |
| 0:56.0 | and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Reviews refused to release court records |
| 1:00.6 | to the ACLU and Justice's Neil Gorsuch in Sonia Sotomayor dissented saying they would |
| 1:05.7 | have granted review. |
| 1:07.2 | For this week, I chose an episode from June 14, 2014 in which a panel of experts debated |
| 1:12.8 | surveillance reform and whether to add a more adversarial process to FISA court proceedings. |
| 1:27.2 | I'm Wells Bennett and this is the LawFair Podcast, June 14, 2014. |
| 1:32.5 | You just heard from Mark Swillinger, a lawyer in private practice with experience in surveillance |
| 1:36.5 | matters. |
| 1:37.5 | On Tuesday, during this year's Computers Freedom and Privacy Conference, Swillinger took |
| 1:41.5 | part in a panel discussion entitled Case 4 and Against a FISA Advocate. |
| 1:46.2 | Joining him in the debate were also Alex Abda of the American Civil Liberties Union and |
| 1:50.0 | Amy Stepanovich of Access. |
| 1:52.2 | The discussion was moderated by our own Steve Ladick. |
... |
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