In Aesop’s “The Farmer & the Snake”, a farmer, while walking his field, picks up a snake frozen with cold. Though he knows the danger, the farmer puts the snake in his shirt to warm it up. The snake, revived, bites the farmer who saved him, and the farmer dies.

The current White House wants congressional leaders to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), instead of waiting for the next, recently elected Congress. FISA 702[1], in the hands of DOGE or NSA or other federal agencies, is that snake. White House officials and appointees lack the restraint, judgement, trustworthiness, and competence to use a tool like FISA 702 in the best interests of you and me. We have the receipts.

FISA Recap and Abuses

FISA 702 expired in June 2026 due congressional inaction, but the NSA can legally operate the program until March 2027. Originally enacted by Congress in 2008 to authorize a form of warrantless wiretapping, FISA 702 allows the government, without a warrant, to obtain from firms like AT&T, Verizon and Google, the messages of foreigners abroad, even when they communicate with U.S. citizens.

U.S. government agencies leverage FISA 702 and other programs to spy on us, illegally hoovering up our private data. The Department of Justice confirmed that DOGE employees had inappropriate access to personal data, that DOGE violated legal restraining orders, and that DOGE had “uploaded sensitive Social Security data to a cloud server without adequate security controls.”

In Do You Trust the Government with Your Private Data, I provided this and other evidence of the consistent, voluminous abuses of our Fourth Amendment and privacy rights by government agencies and officials when armed with FISA 702. There are reasons why privacy and civil liberty advocates from both parties have fought for new limits, additional transparency, or more.

Defend Freedom and Privacy: Revise or Retire FISA 702 outlines how the reasons to fix FISA 702 are straightforward. One, FISA 702 has been used by U.S. government agencies to spy on U.S. citizens, violating our Constitutional right to privacy. Two, these abuses by the FBI and NSA and others persisted and possibly expanded, even as they were identified and called out. Three, the proposed fixes, while inconvenient for some, are clear and simple.

Conclusion

We must accept the brutal facts of people and power: we rarely change the fundamental nature of any human. The self-centered abuser does not return our kindness or flexibility with honor, restraint, and understanding. Rather, they exploit the privilege, and this exploitation is a knowable and predictable betrayal.

Screeching and fearmongering from current White House officials reflect desperation. We already let FISA 702 expire, so the current debate has a false urgency. When we give the Government dangerous tools, trusting they will be used honestly and in good faith, we play a fool’s game and give away our liberties and protections.

When we trust snakes and scorpions, we get bit.

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Additional Reading on FISA 702

A series of brief posts summarizes, with linked references and entertaining sidenotes, the current context for overhauling or killing FISA 702:

• Part I: Cats and Dogs Agree
• Part II: Warrantless Searches and the Four-Way Test
• Part III: Simple Language and the Safe Act
• Part IV: Accept Inconvenience and Floss Your Teeth

[1] The Brennan Center for Justice has an excellent Resource Page about FISA Section 702.