In a landmark ruling, a federal district court held that backdoor searches of databases full of Americans’ private communications collected under Section 702 ordinarily require a warrant. Congress should uphold its responsibility to protect civil rights and civil liberties by refusing to renew Section 702 absent a number of necessary reforms.

the government has claimed that law enforcement agencies do not need a warrant to sift through [previously collected data]. EFF argued for over a decade that this is unconstitutional, and now a federal court agrees with us.