1952: President Harry S. Truman creates the National Security Agency (NSA)
1968: President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Omnibus Crime Control & Safe Streets Act of 1968 (Wiretap Act) after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, mainly as a step towards stricter gun control. Provisions center on the domestic right to privacy in response to two Supreme Court cases (Berger v. New York and Katz v. the United States) both involving the use of illegally intercepted personal communications as evidence. Extends the 4th Amendment to wire, oral and electronic communication except in the event of clear evidence of “conspiratorial activities threatening the national security interest or characteristic of organized crime”
1978: The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) is signed into action, providing judicial and congressional oversight into affairs involving security agencies in the government. Parameters include justification for electronic surveillance, pen registers, tap and trace devices, physical searches and access to business records with or without the demonstration of clear criminal commission in doing so. Any accidental interception of domestic and personal communications irrelevant to foreign activity are required to be destroyed.
2001: Following the attacks on September 11th the Patriot Act broadens the spectrum of terror-related crimes that government agencies and branches can investigate, including but not limited to chemical weaponry and bioterrorism. Federal agents can now follow and monitor highly trained foreign threats by using “advanced techniques” as opposed to the classic and predictable tapping and tracking method. Notification of warrants when applied to suspects of foreign activity may be delayed “a reasonable amount of time” to prevent suspicion and destruction of evidence or harm towards witnesses. The door to surveying technology is now opened.
2007: The Protect America Act is signed and removes of the need for a warrant in targeting foreign intelligence, physically or electronicly.
2008: The FISA Amendments Act upholds the provisions in the now expired Protect America Act and grants immunity to telecommunications companies if they comply with government agencies. Also marks the first written allowance of domestic eavesdropping in the case of emergency without court approval. Was resigned in 2012 and 2017.
Helicopter Democracy 