[280] In August 2006, a U.S. district court judge ruled that the NSA electronic surveillance program was unconstitutional,[281] but on July 6, 2007, that ruling was vacated by the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on the grounds that the plaintiffs lacked standing.[282] On January 17, 2007, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales informed U.S. Senate leaders that the program would not be reauthorized by the President, but would be subjected to judicial oversight.[283] Later in 2007, the NSA launched a replacement for the program, referred to as PRISM, which was subject to the oversight of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.[284] This program was not publicly revealed until reports by The Washington Post[284] and The Guardian[285] emerged in June 2013.[284]

Interrogation policies
See also: Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture and Torture Memos
Bush authorized the CIA to use waterboarding and several other "enhanced interrogation techniques" that several critics, including Barack Obama, would label as torture.