Tulsi Gabbard on fisa: what the evidence says · JRE #2143
SUBJECT: FISA
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
That court, and this is public information, that court approves 99.999999% of all requests that the government makes to go in and surveil American citizens. It's essentially a rubber stamp, which is exactly the problem.
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) does approve the large majority of government surveillance applications, and the 'rubber stamp' criticism is widely made, but the specific 99.999999 percent figure is far higher than the actual record. The most-cited historical rate is roughly 99.97 percent (about 11 to 12 outright denials out of roughly 34,000 applications over the court's first three decades), not the eight-nines Gabbard cited. Recent official data further undercut the near-total-approval claim: the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts reported that in 2022 the FISC received 358 applications and granted 249 outright, modified 87, denied 16 in part, and denied 7 in full, so a meaningful share were changed or rejected rather than rubber-stamped. The directional point (a very high approval rate) is accurate, but the exact percentage is invented and overstates the case.