The United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), also called the FISA Court, is a U.S. federal court established under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) to oversee requests for surveillance warrants against foreign spies inside the United States by federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
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 by the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The FISCR was established by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 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.
Colleen Constance Kollar-Kotelly is an American lawyer serving as a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and was previously presiding judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
John Deacon Bates is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. He was appointed by President George W. Bush in December 2001, and has adjudicated several cases directly affecting the office of the President. Bates served as Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, from July 1, 2013 to January 5, 2015, after which he returned to full-time service as a District Judge.
Timothy Michael Tymkovich is an American lawyer who has served as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit since 2003; serving as chief judge from 2015 to 2022. In November 2023, he was designated by Chief Justice John Roberts to serve as a judge of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review.
MAINWAY is a database maintained by the United States' National Security Agency (NSA) containing metadata for hundreds of billions of telephone calls made through the largest telephone carriers in the United States, including AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile.
Harold Albert Baker was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois. He was originally appointed to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Illinois in 1978 by Jimmy Carter and then reassigned to the newly-created Central District in 1979. He became a senior judge in 1994. He was also a judge of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court until 2005.
Jennifer B. Coffman is a former United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky and the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky.
Rosemary Mayers Collyer is an inactive Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, and a former judge of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
Gregory Kent Frizzell is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma.
Claude Meredith Hilton is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Lisa Godbey Wood is an American lawyer who has served as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia since 2007, serving as chief judge from 2010 to 2017. In November 2023, she was designated by Chief Justice John Roberts to serve as a judge of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review.
James Emanuel "Jeb" Boasberg is the chief judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. He served as the presiding judge of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court from 2020 to 2021 and is a former associate judge on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.
Klayman v. Obama, 957 F.Supp.2d 1, was a decision by the United States District Court for District of Columbia finding that the National Security Agency's (NSA) bulk phone metadata collection program was unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment. The ruling was later overturned on jurisdictional grounds, leaving the constitutional implications of NSA surveillance unaddressed.
In Re Electronic Privacy Information Center, 134 S.Ct. 638 (2013), was a direct petition to the Supreme Court of the United States regarding the National Security Agency's (NSA) telephony metadata collection program. On July 8, 2013, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) filed a petition for a writ of mandamus and prohibition, or a writ of certiorari, to vacate an order of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) in which the court compelled Verizon to produce telephony metadata records from all of its subscribers' calls and deliver those records to the NSA. On November 18, 2013, the Supreme Court denied EPIC's petition.
Charles Barnes Goodwin is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma. He was formerly a United States magistrate judge of the same court.
Hall Estill is an American law firm headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma with additional offices in Oklahoma City, Northwest Arkansas, and Denver, Colorado. Hall Estill ranks among the 400 largest U.S. law firms by domestic attorney headcount. In 2015, Law360 recognized Hall Estill for having the fourth-highest percentage of minority partners among America's large and mid-size law firms and named the firm as one of the "50 Best Firms for Minority Partners."
John Michael O'Connor is an American attorney and politician who served as the 19th attorney general of Oklahoma between 2021 and 2023. O’Connor was previously a shareholder of Hall Estill and a nominee to be a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma, and the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma.
John Frederick Heil III is an American lawyer from Oklahoma who is the Chief United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma. In addition to his appointment to the Northern District, he is also a judge in the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma and United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma.
Sara Elizabeth Hill is a Cherokee and American attorney who served as the attorney general of the Cherokee Nation from August 2019 to August 2023 and as the tribe's secretary of natural resources between October 2015 and August 2019. She is the designate to serve as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma.
