The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) was established by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978. It was originally composed of seven district judges, from seven circuits, appointed by the Chief Justice of the United States to serve for a maximum of seven years. In 2001, the Patriot Act increased the number of judges on the Court to eleven, with three required to live within 20 miles of the District of Columbia. The Chief Justice appoints a Presiding Judge for the court from amongst these eleven judges.

FISA also created a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review to handle appeals from applications denied by FISC. This court is made up of three judges, also appointed by the Chief Justice, from U.S. district or appellate courts and serving for seven years.

The FISC has jurisdiction to "hear applications for and grant orders approving electronic surveillance" and "physical search[es]" for the "purpose of obtaining foreign intelligence information" on foreign nationals within the United States. Procedures at the FISC are secretive and are also widely considered to be non-adversarial, since the target of the order is not given an opportunity to appear at the hearing or informed of the presence of the order. However, the court rules of procedure do allow the electronic service providers to appear in order to challenge or modify any order. In addition, records from FISC hearings are not revealed even to those persons whom the government wishes to investigate, though the FISC may choose to publish its opinions, on its discretion.

At a FISC hearing, the government is not required to present evidence of the probable cause necessary for obtaining a search warrant or evidence of actual criminal activity. Rather, under FISA, the government needs only to present evidence that the surveillance target is a foreign power or an agent of one.

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