The letter from Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) was dated Monday, Oct. 26. It was sent to Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Jay Clayton and U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche.
The senators are seeking an explanation for the delay in releasing the ruling and the names of the officials responsible for it, with a response deadline of Nov. 6. The ruling was issued March 17, according to Nextgov [3]. Federal law provides 180 days for review before public release, a window that closed Sept. 13, according to WIRED and the administration's own guidance.
The dispute centers on Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a warrantless surveillance authority that has drawn bipartisan scrutiny over its impact on Americans' Fourth Amendment rights [3]. The program allows the government to collect communications of foreign targets abroad, but it also sweeps in messages between those targets and U.S. persons. The senators' letter argues that the withheld ruling is central to the public debate over whether Congress should renew the program.
Court Opinion and Missed Release Deadline
According to WIRED, the FISC objected to search filters that let analysts pull Americans' communications out of intercepted data without the approvals, written justifications and records the law requires [2]. The court then approved another year of Section 702 surveillance, according to the report. The opinion has not been made public, even though the 180-day review period for its release ended in September, according to the senators' letter and WIRED [2].
The senators wrote that if the administration will not follow what they called a simple statutory directive, it is unclear why Congress or the public should trust it to follow other legal limits to Section 702. The letter represents an escalation in a long-running fight over transparency at the surveillance court, which operates largely in secret and whose opinions are rarely released in full. The FISC ruling, issued in January 2025, adds to the legal pressure on the program as lawmakers weigh its renewal.
Earlier Requests and Official Responses
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Vice Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA) asked the administration in April to release the opinion within 15 days, according to WIRED. Demand Progress said in May that the deadline passed without declassification, according to the report. Blanche was asked in writing in July whether he would commit to declassifying the opinion by the 180-day mark, and his written response was 'Yes,' according to WIRED.
Clayton, who as DNI is legally responsible for the declassification process, made no such promise. Before his confirmation, he said the government was 'working arduously to expeditiously declassify' the opinion and had given the full text to lawmakers, according to WIRED.
Warner's office told WIRED it expects Clayton to declassify the opinion as required by law. Cotton's office did not respond to WIRED's questions; similarly, the White House, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Justice (DOJ) did not answer WIRED's questions.
The exchange over the opinion comes as the Trump administration has moved to reshape the leadership of the intelligence community. Their testimony underscored the administration's support for maintaining the surveillance authority even as it resists releasing the court's findings about how it has been used.
Leaked Findings and Compliance Figures
The New York Times reported in April that the court found the tools agencies use to narrow intercepted data to an American's messages amount to searches of Americans subject to the same limits, and ordered them rebuilt. Nextgov said it could not independently confirm that account. Administration talking points sent to lawmakers said only that the court found the proposed approach 'could present deficiencies,' according to WIRED.
Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) has said the DOJ is appealing portions of the ruling that limit its use of certain filtering tools. Seven intelligence-agency fact sheets issued in March, one dated the day of the ruling, cited a 98.9% compliance rate for Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) searches of Americans and did not mention the court's findings, according to WIRED. The DOJ inspector general's review put compliance at 98.6% and said it could not conclude the FBI's compliance problems were "entirely in the past."
The discrepancy between the fact sheets' emphasis on high compliance rates and the court's reported concerns about search procedures highlights the stakes of the disclosure fight. The ruling, if released, would give the public and lawmakers a more complete picture of how the FBI and other agencies have handled queries involving Americans' communications under Section 702.
Conclusion: Program Renewal and Nov. 6 Deadline
Section 702 lapsed in June after Congress failed to renew it, though collection continues under the court's March approval, which runs to next March, according to the report. Intelligence officials are pressing lawmakers to renew Section 702 by year-end, and reform advocates expect the administration to try to attach a renewal to the annual defense bill, which Congress usually finishes in December, as lawmakers did in 2023.
Demand Progress and 22 other groups, from the ACLU to a conservative-backed privacy group, urged congressional leaders not to renew the program while the ruling remains secret, according to WIRED. The administration has until November 6 to answer the senators. The ruling remains secret, and the agencies concerned did not answer WIRED's questions.
The standoff leaves the program in a state of uncertainty: operating under a court order that runs only to next March, facing a renewal fight in Congress and a declassification demand from two senators that could shape the debate over whether the surveillance authority should continue.
References
- Senators Say Trump Admin Is Illegally Sitting On Secret Court Ruling About Warrantless Spying. https://www.zerohedge.com/political/senators-say-trump-administration-illegally-sitting-secret-court-ruling-about-warrantless
- The US Government Is Hiding a Secret Court Ruling About How It Spies on Americans. https://www.wired.com/story/the-us-government-is-hiding-a-secret-court-ruling-about-how-it-spies-on-americans/
- Judge renews procedures for 702 surveillance program that could soon lapse. https://www.nextgov.com/policy/2026/04/judge-renews-procedures-702-surveillance-program-could-soon-lapse/412767/
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