EPIC, Coalition Urge Congress to Force Administration to Publicly Release Surveillance Court Opinion on Section 702

EPIC, Demand Progress, and a coalition of civil liberty, civil rights, and privacy organizations submitted a letter to Congres to urge them to not consider the reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) while the most recent Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) opinion remains hidden from Congress and the public. Further the coalition called upon Congress to implement a warrant requirement for accessing Americans’ private communications collected through Section 702.

Earlier this year, the FISC recertified the surveillance program under Section 702 but the opinion also found, as a press release from Senator Wyden put it, “major compliance problems” that “are directly related to Americans’ Constitutional rights.” Senator Wyden wrote a letter to his Senate colleagues urging them to review a classified letter he wrote describing the findings of the FISC. Under the law, the FISC opinion should have gone through a declassification review and released to the public by September 13, 2026.

EPIC has submitted a Freedom of Informatin Act request seeking the release of the FISC opinion. EPIC has long supported meaningful reforms of FISA Section 702 and supports previously introduced bills from both sides of the aisle that would reauthorize Section 702 of FISA while closing both the backdoor search and data broker loopholes; namely, the Government Surveillance Reform Act of 2026 (GSRA); the Security and Freedom Enhancement Act of 2026 (SAFE Act); and the Protect Liberty and End Warrantless Surveillance Act of 2026 (Protect Liberty Act). EPIC previously published a blog series—including this overview of the issue explaining why the law must be reformed.