The Patriot Act Section 215

The government was using section 215 of the patriot act to collect the phone records of virtually every person in the united states.

The patriot act section 215. In june 2013 a leaked fisa court order publicly revealed that secret interpretation. Clapper that section 215 of the patriot act did not authorize the bulk collection of phone metadata which judge gerard e. That program like its predecessors was shuttered due to unlawful overproduction of records.

Along with two other patriot act provisions section 215 lapsed after lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on a broader set of reforms to the foreign intelligence surveillance act fisa. On may 20 2015 paul spoke for ten and a half hours in opposition to the reauthorization of section 215 of the patriot act. At midnight on may 31 2015 section 215 expired.

As section 215 stands today in the reauthorized version of the patriot act passed in 2005 tangible things aka user data sought in a fisa order must be relevant to an authorized preliminary. Among other things section 215 of the patriot act substantially revised the fisa to provide for the production not only of business records but also of any tangible things and to eliminate. May 26 2020 later this week the house of representatives is once again voting on whether or not to extend the authorities in section 215 of the patriot act a surveillance law with a rich history of government overreach and abuse along with two other patriot act provisions and possibly an amendment.

In 2018 under only one of two section 215 provisions the government collected 434 238 543 call records. Section 215 also known as the tangible things or business records provision of the usa patriot act amended section 501 of the foreign intelligence surveillance act and permits the collection of tangible things including books records papers documents and other items for an investigation to obtain foreign intelligence information the collection of such items is permitted if the investigation seeks to obtain foreign intelligence information that does. Eff sued the department of justice doj on the 10th anniversary of the signing of the usa patriot act in october 2011 for answers about secret interpretations of a controversial section of the law.

Section 215 of the usa patriot act.