John Parker Boyd and United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court: Difference between pages

Revision as of 18:35, 30 September 2005

Revision as of 22:12, 24 October 2005

Line 1:

The '''United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court''' (or '''FISC''') is a [[United States federal courts|U.S. federal court]] authorized under {{UnitedStatesCode|50|1803}} and established by the [[Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act]] of [[1978]] (known as FISA for short). Its jurisdiction is to oversee requests for surveillance warrants by federal police agencies (primarily the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|F.B.I.]]) against suspected foreign [[secret agent|intelligence agents]] inside the United States.

'''John Parker Boyd''' ([[1764]] – [[1830]]) was an officer in the [[United States Army]], from various periods from the [[American War of Independence]] to the end of the [[War of 1812]]. He commanded the troops defeated at the [[Battle of Crysler's Farm]] in late 1813.

Each application for one of these surveillance warrant (called a FISA warrant) is made before an individual judge of the court. Like a [[grand jury]], FISC is not an [[Adversary system|adversarial court]]: the federal government is the only party to its proceedings. However, the court may allow third parties to submit briefs as ''[[amicus curiae|amici curiae]]''. If an application is denied by one judge of the FISC, the federal government is not allowed to make the same application to a different judge of the FISC. Instead, denials must be appealed to the [[United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review]]. Such appeals are rare: the first appeal from the FISC to the Court of Review was made in [[2002]], 24 years after the founding of the FISC.

After serving in the War of Independence, he joined the U.S. Army in 1786. He resigned three years later, to serve as a [[Soldier of Fortune]] in the army of the [[Nizam of Hyderabad]], in Central [[India]].

Because of the sensitive nature of its business, the FISC is a "secret court": its hearings are closed to the public, and, while records of the proceedings are kept, those records are also not available to the public. (Copies of those records with [[classified]] information redacted out can and have been made public.) Due to the classified nature of its proceedings, only government attorneys are usually permitted to appear before the FISC.

Rejoining the U.S. Army in 1808 as a Lieutenant Colonel, he commanded the 4th U.S. Infantry under [[William Henry Harrison]] at the [[Battle of Tippecanoe]].

When the court was founded, it was composed of seven [[United States district court|federal district]] judges appointed by the [[Chief Justice of the United States]], each serving a seven year term, with one judge being appointed each year. In [[2001]], the [[USA PATRIOT Act]] expanded the court to eleven judges, and required that at least three of the judges of the court be from within twenty miles of the [[District of Columbia]]. No judge may be appointed to this court more than once, and no judge may be appointed to both the Court of Review and the FISC.

When the war of 1812 broke out, Boyd initially commanded a brigade under General [[Henry Dearborn]] at [[Albany, New York]] and in some indecisive actions north of [[Lake Champlain]].

[[Category:Judicial Branch of the United States Government]]

In 1813, he successfully commanded a brigade at the [[Battle of Fort George]]. As illness or disgrace removed many of his contemporaries, he eventually commanded the garrison of captured Fort George, although the defeat at the [[Battle of Beaver Dam Creek]] forced him to remain strictly on the defensive.

[[Category:Article III tribunals]]

Moving his troops from Fort George to [[Sackets Harbor, New York|Sacket's Harbour]], he participated in General [[James Wilkinson|James Wilkinson's]] ill-fated attack on [[Montreal]]. At the Battle of Crysler's Farm, the illness of Wilkinson and the army's second-in-command, Major General [[Morgan Lewis]] made him the commander of the attack on a smaller British force. His troops, already dispirited, straggled into action on unfavourable terrain, and were repulsed.

Boyd remained in command of a brigade at the winter camp of the Army at [[Salmon Creek, New York]]. After a half-hearted attack by Wilkinson at [[Battle of Lacolle Mills (1814)

|Lacolle Mill]] failed, he was sidelined into a figurehead rear-area assignment, and saw no further front line service.

He published a defence of his actions in 1816.

[[Category:U.S. Army generals|Boyd, John Parker]]

[[Category:War of 1812|Boyd, John Parker]]

[[Category:1764 births|Boyd, John Parker]]

[[Category:1830 deaths|Boyd, John Parker]]

{{military-bio-stub}}