The Black Caucus Backs the Surveillance Law the FBI Used on BLM

The United States Capitol building dome against a cloudy sky in Washington DC — Photo via Unsplash

TL;DR: The Congressional Black Caucus will support a clean reauthorization of FISA Section 702: no warrant requirement, no reforms. This is the same surveillance authority the FBI used to search the communications of 133 Black Lives Matter activists in 2020. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) quietly lobbied CBC leadership to stand down on reforms. Meanwhile, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, and Congressional Progressive Caucus all oppose renewal without privacy protections. The CBC is the only minority caucus backing a clean extension of warrantless surveillance, three days before it expires.

One Caucus Said Yes. Every Other Said No.

When Speaker Johnson tried to ram through a clean 18-month extension of Section 702 this week, he needed Democratic votes. Republican holdouts (Massie, Biggs, Davidson, Boebert) wouldn’t budge on warrants. Johnson’s own party couldn’t deliver the numbers.

That’s where the Congressional Black Caucus came in.

According to the American Prospect, Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, lobbied CBC leadership to support the clean reauthorization [1]. The CBC agreed, positioning itself as the only minority caucus willing to hand Trump warrantless surveillance powers without conditions.

Meeks later told reporters: “I support FISA reauthorization, but the only vote I’ve been whipping is my War Powers Resolution to end the war in Iran” [1]. Make of that what you will.

Here’s what every other caucus said:

Congressional Progressive Caucus: 98 members pledged no vote on any clean extension [2]
Congressional Hispanic Caucus: Demanded “meaningful reforms” before any vote [3]
Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus: Same: no reforms, no support [3]

CPC Chair Greg Casar (D-TX), CHC Chair Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), and CAPAC Chair Grace Meng (D-NY) signed a joint letter calling for privacy protections [3]. The CBC signed nothing of the sort.

133 BLM Activists. One FBI Query. Zero Warrants.

In 2020, the FBI used Section 702 to search the communications of 133 people arrested “in connection with civil unrest and protests between May 30 and June 18, 2020”, the first wave of George Floyd protests [4].

That’s not a conspiracy theory. It’s in a declassified FISC opinion written by presiding Judge Rudolph Contreras, published by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence [4].

An FBI agent queried the 702 database for information on 133 Black Lives Matter protesters. Not foreign terrorists. Not intelligence targets. Americans exercising their First Amendment rights in the streets of their own cities.

The FBI’s explanation? A “lack of understanding on the part of the person who ran it.” The agent received “remedial training” [4]. That was it. One person. One training session. For the warrantless surveillance of 133 activists.

And the BLM search wasn’t an outlier. The same FISC review found the FBI had run warrantless 702 queries on a U.S. senator, journalists and political commentators, 6,800 Social Security numbers, 19,000 donors to a congressional campaign, and an FBI employee’s family member suspected of having an affair [5].

Why Is the CBC Doing This?

Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, has been the loudest Democratic voice for a clean extension. Himes argues that the 2024 reforms were sufficient and that adding warrant requirements would “cripple” intelligence gathering [6].

Himes worked behind the scenes to bring Meeks on board, and Meeks brought the CBC [1]. The logic, as presented by national security hawks: Section 702 is critical for fighting terrorism, and a lapse would create dangerous intelligence gaps.

Former Republican Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan wasn’t buying it. He warned the CBC directly: “Anyone who empowers Donald Trump (or any president) to spy on Americans without a warrant is betraying the Constitution” [7].

Amash pointed out the irony: both Meeks and Johnson supported a warrant amendment in 2018 when it was someone else’s administration doing the surveilling [7].

The Intercept reported that Democratic Whip Katherine Clark declined to give unified guidance on the vote. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries personally supports reforms but hasn’t pressured his caucus [6]. Leadership abdicated. The CBC filled the vacuum, on the wrong side.

The Vote Math: Why CBC Votes Matter

Republicans hold a 218-214 margin in the House. Johnson pulled the vote Wednesday because conservative holdouts wouldn’t fold. He needs Democratic crossovers to pass the clean extension.

The CBC has 60 members. If even half vote yes on a clean extension, it more than offsets the Republican defections. That’s the play. Johnson couldn’t whip his own party, so Meeks delivered the Black Caucus to do it for him.

Jake Laperruque of the Center for Democracy and Technology told The Intercept that Democratic leadership essentially has no position: “They, I don’t think, have a stance on this” [6]. That vacuum means individual members and caucuses make the call. The CBC made theirs.

The Pattern: Surveillance Tools Used on Black Communities, Renewed by Black Leaders

This isn’t a new dynamic. Section 702 is one piece of a surveillance apparatus that has consistently been deployed against Black activists, organizations, and communities:

The FBI’s COINTELPRO operation targeted Martin Luther King Jr., the Black Panthers, and civil rights organizations from 1956 to 1971
The FBI created a “Black Identity Extremist” threat category in 2017, applied to Black Lives Matter organizers
Section 702 was used to search 133 BLM protesters in 2020
ICE uses Mobile Fortify facial recognition to identify protesters at anti-ICE demonstrations, disproportionately at events in communities of color
The government buys location data from brokers to track movements, no warrant needed

30+ civil rights organizations endorsed reform demands before this week’s vote, specifically citing risks under the Trump administration’s “unparalleled appetite for collecting and exploiting Americans’ personal data” [3].

The CBC chose to ignore them.

What Happens Now

Section 702 expires at midnight Sunday, April 20. The House will try again Thursday. If CBC members vote en bloc for a clean extension, they could provide the margin Johnson needs.

Privacy advocates aren’t giving up. Demand Progress called the Wednesday collapse proof that “fearmongering was not enough to overcome a bipartisan movement fighting for privacy rights” [3]. Over 30 civil rights groups are still pushing for warrant requirements.

Progressive activists confronted Himes at a town hall, asking him to withdraw his support [6]. He didn’t. Grassroots pressure on CBC members may be the last leverage reformers have before Thursday’s vote.

What You Can Do Right Now

If your representative is a CBC member: Call them today. Ask them to demand a warrant requirement before voting yes. The vote is Thursday. 5calls.org has a script ready
Remind them: The FBI searched 133 BLM activists using Section 702. No warrant. One agent. “Remedial training.” That’s the program they’re voting to extend unchanged
Name the stakes: This isn’t about national security abstractions. Trump’s administration is already building centralized AI surveillance databases. A clean 702 extension hands them 18 more months of warrantless access to Americans’ communications
Support the organizations pushing back: EPIC’s Reform or Sunset campaign, Demand Progress, and the ACLU are all active on this

References

Published: April 17, 2026