For those who have been tracking changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, David Kris, former associate deputy attorney general at the Department of Justice, has made it easier with a helpful new document (see below) showing the original FISA law from 1978 and all of the changes that have been made to it since 9/11 through the Patriot Act and other legislation. The changes are color-coded so you can see exactly which subsequent legislation was responsible for which amendments to FISA.
Kris, now a senior vice president and chief ethics and compliance officer at Time Warner, made headlines last year when he released a lengthy memo (PDF) that challenged the government’s legal arguments asserting that the president had the power to authorize warrantless surveillance.
