DeWine Proposed FISA Amendment in 2002 and Was Rejected
Thanks to Glenn Greenwald for pointing out that in 2002, Republican Mike DeWine proposed amending FISA to reduce the probable cause standard for foreigners to one of "reasonable suspicion" and his bill was defeated.
There was good reason for rejecting DeWine's bill. It's called the Fourth Amendment. From an AP article on June 26, 2002 (available on Lexis):
Stephen Saltzburg, a George Washington University law professor, questioned whether courts would view DeWine's proposal as violating Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches.
"Any departure from probable cause when dealing with electronic surveillance warrants will be dealt with extreme skepticism by the judiciary," he said.
The ACLU noted:
....the lower standard would make it too easy for the FBI "to break into a non-citizen's home, download everything in his computer and rifle through everything in his bedroom."
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