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OLC Memo: Constitutionality of Amending Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to Change the “Purpose” Standard for Searches
Sept. 25, 2001 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 4539
The memo discusses whether a change to the FISA law would render it unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment. Specifically it considers and concludes that changing the law from requiring that foreign intelligence gathering be “the purpose” to “a purpose” would not violate the Fourth Amendment. Apparently, the memo is criticized and partly repudiated in Steven Bradbury’s 1/15/09 memo relating to the status of certain OLC opinions.