We can deal with foreign threats without violating Americans’ rights

In the United States, if the government wants to search your private records, it has to go before a court and get a warrant supported by probable cause. That’s a key part of the Bill of Rights and an important protection against government abuse.

One year from now, Republicans and Democrats in Congress will have a chance to reaffirm our commitment to the Constitution and better protect Americans from warrantless government surveillance. This will be one of the most important debates we will have this Congress, and it is vital that we begin working now to protect Americans’ constitutional rights.

We tried a year ago and came up just short. As the House considered reauthorizing the nation’s warrantless surveillance authority, a bipartisan group of members offered a narrow amendment to require the government to obtain a warrant before it could search through any data on Americans gathered during foreign surveillance activities. The vote tied, 212-212, so the warrant requirement was not adopted.

The foreign surveillance authority, known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, expires again next year, on April 19, 2026. We have one more chance to stand up for our basic constitutional rights. Under the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, the federal government generally isn’t allowed to obtain your communications without a warrant. But there are some caveats — and Section 702 is a big one.

Section 702 allows the government to “query” private data on Americans that is incidentally collected through the warrantless surveillance of foreign citizens.

Make no mistake, “query” is a fancy word for “search.” In recent years, the government has searched millions of Americans’ data within the 702 database without ever obtaining a warrant. That’s not how it’s supposed to work in America.

The government says it has query procedures to protect against unlawful searches. But it reportedly failed to follow its own procedures at least 278,000 times.

Congress has a responsibility to fix this. We can balance the need to protect Americans’ fundamental constitutional rights with the need to give our intelligence and law-enforcement agencies the tools to fight those who want to do us harm.

Last year, Congress passed the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act with bipartisan support. The law included some much-needed reforms, such as new audit requirements for queries of Americans, limits on the number of FBI employees who can conduct these queries, heightened penalties for misconduct and increased transparency measures. We took these important steps, and we have seen some improvement, but they did not go far enough. Until we pass a warrant requirement, the government’s powerful surveillance authorities will always be subject to abuse.

Critics of a warrant requirement say it would harm national security and slow down investigations. These arguments are misguided. We have offered clear exceptions to the warrant requirement that would protect national security. For example, if there is an imminent threat to the security of our country, the FBI may proceed with the search of the database without a warrant. Likewise, if an American consents to the query, or if the FBI is conducting a query to mitigate a cybersecurity threat, a warrant would not be necessary.

These exceptions ensure that the government can deal with real-time threats to our national security while protecting the constitutional rights of Americans in all other cases. That seems like common sense. But short of imminent threats to national security, there is no good excuse for ignoring the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement.

Our fidelity must always be to the Constitution. The Fourth Amendment is one of the foundations of American civil liberties. It is part of what makes our country great and makes us the envy of the world. We must continue to protect and enhance it. Passing a warrant requirement for Section 702 will do just that.