Supreme Court denies terror defendant access to surveillance documents

On Monday, the Supreme Court refused to grant a terror defendant access to secret court documents that paved the way for the monitoring of his electronic communications.

Without comment, the high court let stand a lower court opinion denying the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court records connected to the phone and Internet monitoring of Adel Daoud. The 21-year-old denies he pressed the trigger of what he thought was a real bomb outside a Chicago bar as part of an FBI sting operation. His lawyers said the records were necessary to mount a defense during the defendant’s upcoming federal terror trial.

“Without access to FISA materials, it is virtually impossible for defendants to challenge the lawfulness of the government’s surveillance of them,” according to the Daoud petition the justices rejected reviewing Monday.