February 26, 2025
Supreme Court reviews Fourth Amendment challenge to FISA expansion
Supreme Court reviews constitutionality of Trump surveillance expansion order
🔒Digital Rights✊Civil Rights⚖️Justice
Supreme Court considers constitutionality of Trump surveillance expansion orders while federal judges block immigration enforcement near places of worship without warrants, as Fourth Amendment privacy rights clash with national security claims in cases affecting digital monitoring of 330 million Americans.
On February 26, 2025, the Supreme Court heard Privacy First Foundation et al. v. Garland, a challenge to Executive Order 14287 which the White House fact sheet says relies on §215 of the USA PATRIOT Act (whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements/2025/01/28/eo-14287-fact-sheet/).
In its amicus brief, the Electronic Frontier Foundation argues that EO 14287’s warrantless metadata sweeps fail the reasonable-expectation-of-privacy prong of Katz (eff.org/files/2025/01/05/eff_amicus_privacy_first.pdf).
Government attorneys told the Court that the surveillance program retains only IP-header metadata, not content (lawfareblog.com/arguments-scotus-surveillance).
🔒Digital Rights✊Civil Rights⚖️Justice
People, bills, and sources
Elizabeth B. Prelogar
U.S. Solicitor General
Ron Wyden
U.S. Senator (D-OR)
What You Can Do
1
Download and review the full EFF amicus brief at https://eff.org/files/2025/01/05/eff_amicus_privacy_first.pdf to examine the argument on the reasonable-expectation-of-privacy test.
2
Consult the White House fact sheet at https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements/2025/01/28/eo-14287-fact-sheet/ for precise details on EO 14287’s reliance on §215 of the USA PATRIOT Act.
3
Access the Supreme Court’s February 2025 oral argument calendar at https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_calendars/2025/Feb.pdf to verify that petitioners were allotted a five-minute rebuttal.