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wahernyesterday at 9:31 PM1 replyview on HN

The FISA court only handles warrants, not prosecutions. Generally the only parties involved in a warrant request to a court (FISA or any other), are the judge and the government representative(s) seeking the warrant, though the court can pull in third-parties if it wants, e.g. for advice on legal questions.

A secret criminal prosecution trial would be unconstitutional under the Sixth Amendment ("In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial"). Though SCOTUS has unfortunately allowed for some classified material to be kept secret, sometimes (IIRC) even from the defendant and the jury, though usually this is ancillary stuff, not the direct evidence that would secure a conviction.


Replies

cogman10yesterday at 11:11 PM

Warrants are what's at issue when the 4th amendment is in play. The thing you can't do when FISA issues a warrant is get the details about that warrant, who issued it, why it was issued. You can't even know that a FISA warrant was deployed against yourself.

Normal judicial warrants are public record.