Congress is having a big fight this week over the renewal of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The act expires on April 19th. MAGA conservatives are trying to stop the renewal without major amendments to the law.
Unfortunately, House Speaker Mike Johnson is completely aligned with Joe Biden’s main priorities, so he wants a clean, unamended renewal of FISA.
One of the biggest problems with these secret FISA courts is that they allow the FBI to spy on American citizens without a warrant. It’s how the FBI spied on Donald Trump’s campaigns in 2016 and 2020, and how they are probably spying on him again this year.
The Fourth Amendment clearly protects all Americans from being spied upon unless the government gets a warrant. The language of the Fourth Amendment is plain, and the courts have always upheld it. But because of a loophole in the FISA process, the FBI has conducted more than 100,000 searches of Americans’ emails, text messages, and phone calls without obtaining warrants.
They’re not fighting terrorism like this. They’re looking for ways to lock Trump supporters and other enemies of Joe Biden up in prison – and the FBI has no intention of playing by the rules.
Tucker Carlson gives a great explanation of the battle that’s taking place over FISA right now: