Trump Administration Has Ignored Legal Deadline to Release Surveillance Court Opinion on FISA Section 702 Warrantless Surveillance Program

November 1, 2026 - Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) has joined Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) in demanding that the Trump administration stop violating federal law and immediately declassify a surveillance court opinion that details abuses by the government of warrantless surveillance under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).  

The opinion by the FISA Court was signed on March 17, 2026, and was legally required to be declassified within 180 days, on September 13. Yet the Trump administration, in violation of federal law, has still not made the opinion public. This opinion includes details about “serious abuses of Americans’ rights” that must be made public before the Senate debates reauthorizing FISA Section 702 surveillance, the Senators wrote.  

“As Congress continues to debate the fate of this authority, lawmakers must be able to discuss these abuses openly,” Schiff and Wyden wrote. “Otherwise, the American people will rightly question whether a government that so flagrantly violates basic legal requirements, like the statute requiring declassification, can ever be trusted to not abuse a powerful surveillance tool like Section 702.” 

The Senators demanded that the administration release the opinion as soon as possible and identify the officials responsible for withholding its timely release by November 6, 2026. 

FISA Section 702 is a powerful surveillance authority that allows the government to collect communications of foreign intelligence targets without a warrant. However, the program also sweeps up a significant amount of Americans’ communications in the process, with little oversight of impact on Americans and lawful permanent residents, making transparency about abuses particularly important.  

Both the chair and vice-chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee have called for the opinion to be released, and Attorney General Todd Blanche repeatedly committed to declassify the opinion by the legal deadline.  

The full text of the letter can be found hereand below.  

Dear Director Clayton and Attorney General Blanche:  

We write to demand the administration stop violating the law and finally release a declassified version of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) opinion and order, dated March 17, 2026. This opinion details serious abuses of Americans’ rights under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and, by law, should have been released before September 13. Yet this opinion remains hidden over a month later, suggesting that the administration hopes to secure a renewal of Section 702 while keeping Congress and the public in the dark. As Congress continues to debate the fate of this authority, lawmakers must be able to discuss these abuses openly. Otherwise, the American people will rightly question whether a government that so flagrantly violates basic legal requirements, like the statute requiring declassification, can ever be trusted to not abuse a powerful surveillance tool like Section 702.  

This year, Congress has on multiple occasions debated whether to extend Section 702, and ultimately let it expire in June. Despite its expiration, the administration is still permitted to continue collection under Section 702 until March 2027. This is because the March 17, 2026 FISC opinion that detailed abuses of the program also permitted the administration to continue this surveillance for another year. As such, Congress will doubtlessly debate whether to revive Section 702 in the coming months.  

We have long called for reforms to this program and other government surveillance. As you know, Congress continues to consider reforms to Section 702, including whether to require a warrant to search 702 collections for the communications of particular Americans, stopping the government from warrantlessly buying Americans’ data from data brokers, and limiting the people and entities that the government can conscript into surveillance of Americans.  

We and others have repeatedly called for the administration to release the March FISC opinion. In May, the Chair and Vice Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee sent a letter to the administration stating their expectation that the opinion would be released by May 15 “in order to inform the Senate debate on section 702.” The statute itself requires the administration to release a declassified version of the opinion within 180 days. In July, Attorney General Blanche told the Senate Judiciary Committee he expected that the public release would happen “in advance of the statutory deadline.” Attorney General Blanche unequivocally committed to “declassifying the opinion by the statutory deadline of 180 days and complying with the law.” Nevertheless, it is now a month past the statutory deadline and the opinion has still not been released. 

Simply put, this is not acceptable, especially as this administration restarts its attempts to lobby Congress to renew Section 702 without reforms. The administration has now had over seven months to declassify and release this opinion. It is time to stop violating the law and finally release this opinion. And if this administration won’t follow this simple statutory directive, it is unclear why Congress or the American people should trust this administration to follow any of the other legal limits to Section 702.  

We demand that you release this opinion as soon as possible. We also request that you respond in writing by November 6, 2026, providing an explanation as to why the opinion was not released by the statutory deadline and identifying the officials that were responsible for withholding its timely release.  

Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

Source: Senator Adam Schiff