Reading Room Document

Constitutionality of Expanded Electronic Surveillance Against Terrorists

This opinion provides legal justifications for the Bush Administration's decision to deploy expanded electronic surveillance techniques without obtaining a warrant. The opinion argues that the surveillance can be defended as reasonable under the Fourth Amendment because it advances the compelling government interest of protecting the U.S. from direct attack. The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at https://justice.gov/olc/page/file/1154156/download.

November 2, 2001