Speaker Mike Johnson Is Reportedly Considering Slipping Controversial Warrantless Surveillance Reauthorization (FISA Section 702) Into Defense Bill

The looming expiration of Section 702, a law enabling government agencies’ ability to collect communication data from targeted foreign entities but has consistently been shown to be used against US citizens, has sparked conflict between groups looking to maintain it and privacy activists who view the law as a circumvention of the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement for searches of American citizens’ communications.

House Speaker Mike Johnson appears to be contemplating the inclusion of a controversial reauthorization of Section 702 into a defense appropriations bill, enabling the controversial warrantless surveillance to continue.

Despite the increased pressure for the curtailing of Section 702’s powers, Johnson may go forward with the measure’s reauthorization via the National Defense Authorization Act.