United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review

United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review
(F.I.S.C.R.)
Location	Washington, D.C.
Appeals to	Supreme Court of the United States
Appeals from	United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court
Established	October 25, 1978
Authority	Article III court
Created by	Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act 50 U.S.C. § 1803
Composition method	Chief Justice appointment
Judges	3
Judge term length	7 years
Presiding Judge	Stephen A. Higginson
www.fisc.uscourts.gov/FISCR

The United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review (FISCR) is a U.S. federal court whose sole purpose is to review denials of applications for electronic surveillance warrants (called FISA warrants) by the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (or FISC). The FISCR was established by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (known as FISA for short) and consists of a panel of three judges. Like the FISC, the FISCR is not an adversarial court; rather, the only party to the court is the federal government, although other parties may submit briefs as amici curiae if they are made aware of the proceedings. Papers are filed and proceedings are held in secret. Records of the proceedings are kept classified, though copies of the proceedings with sensitive information redacted are very occasionally made public. The government may appeal decisions of the FISCR to the Supreme Court of the United States, which hears appeals on a discretionary basis.

There is no provision for review or appeal of a grant of a warrant application, only of a denial. That is because in both the FISC and the FISCA, the government – the party who seeks a warrant to conduct surveillance – is the only party before the court, and it is unusual for anyone else to become aware of the warrant application in the first place.

The judges of the Court of Review are district or appellate federal judges, appointed by the Chief Justice of the United States for seven-year terms. Their terms are staggered so that there are at least two years between consecutive appointments. A judge may be appointed only once to either the FISCR or the FISC.